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THIS VOLUME 



IS CORDIALLY INSCRIBED 



BY HEE FRIEND. 



THE TRANSLATOR. 



SECRET HISTORY 



OF THE 



FRENCH COURT 



UNDER 



RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN ; 



OR, 



lif^ mi <Bmt^ 4 Utadam^ &^ (l[\uiommt 



BY 



VICTOR COUSIN, 

AUTHOR OF "the TRUE, THE BEAUTIFUL, AND THE GOOD," "COURSE OP 
PHILOSOPHY," "youth OF MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE," ETC., ETC. 



TRANSLATED BY 

MAKY L. BOOTH 



NEW YORK: 
JAMES MILLEE, PUBLISHER, 

647 BROADWAY, 
1871. 









% transfer 
^'^' Public ii 



mt 



PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR. 



Among the most admired of Yictor Cousin's works 
are his " Studies of the Illustrious Women and the 
Society of the Seventeenth Century '" and of these 
none has excited so much attention as his "Life of 
Madame de Chevreuse." In this charming biography, 
which certainly reads very much like a romance, the 
author claims the merit of a scrupulous and exact 
adherence to the truth of history. He controverts 
many received opinions and forces the reader to aban- 
don many established hypotheses, but he does it upon 
the incontestable evidence of cotemporary writers and 
of documents that, were supposed to be lost or not 
known to exist. Among these are a hitherto unknown 
memoir of Richelieu concerning the secret affairs of 
1633, which produced the imprisonment of Chateau- 
neuf, keeper of the seals ; the unpublished examina- 
tions of La Porte and the Abbess of Yal-de-Grace in 
1637 ; the autograph Garnets of Mazarin, explained 
and developed by the evidence of his secret police, and 



VI PREFACE BY THE TEANSLATOK. 

several inedited letters of Queen Anne to the cardinal 
whicli solve the question of their relations. 

Madame Chevreuse coped with Kichelieu in the 
adroit political intrigues which marked the close of 
the reign of Louis XIII. and excited the admiration 
of all Europe ; and in Cardinal Mazarin's memorable 
struggle at the beginning of his ministry and of the 
regency against the " Important s" (those predeces- 
sors of the " Frondeurs "), he encountered no more 
powerful adversary or none who gave him more anxiety 
than she. The author in his romantic memoir only 
rapidly sketches the early and the later life of his sub- 
ject, dwelling most upon her career as an actress in 
the great drama of 1643 ; and his work was intended 
to be not so much the story of one of the most brilliant 
female politicians that France has ever produced, as a 
revelation of the secret history of the French Court 
under Kichelieu and Mazarin. 



CONTENTS 



FIRST PART. 

MADAME DE CHEVREUSE AND RICHELIEU. 

CHAPTER I. 

Character and personal appearance of Madame de Chevreuse, — Her birth and her 
first and second marriages. — Intimate friendship with Anne of Austria. — Count 
Holland.— Prince de Chalais — First Exile. — Charles IV. Duke of Lorraine.— Ke- 
turn to France. — Richelieu and Chateauneuf. — Madame de Chevreuse banished 
again to Touraine. — Affairs of 1637. — Second Exile ; flight to Spain, . . 1 

CHAPTER II. 

Madame de Chevreuse in Spain, and in England.— Long negotiation with Eiche- 
lieu to return to France. — Failure of the negotiation.— Marie de Medicis and 
the Duke d'ifipernon. — Madame de Chevreuse in Flanders. — Conspiracy and 
rebellion of Count de Soissons. — Affair of Cinq-Mars.— Death of Richelieu and 
of Louis XIII. — Eoyal declaration of the 20th of April, 1643, condemning 
Madame de Chevreuse to a perpetual exile, — Her recall by the new regent, 46 

SECOND PART. 

MADAME DE CHEVREUSE AND MAZARIN. 

CHAPTER III. 

Madame de Chevreuse returns to the Court and to Paris. — New Arrangements of 
the Queen. — Anne of Austria and Mazarin. — Efforts of Madame de Chevreuse 
in favor of the former Party of the Queen and against the Policy and the Parti- 
sans of Richelieu. — Her Solicitations in behalf of Chateauneuf, the Vendomes, 
and La Rochefoucauld. — Her Home and Foreign Policy. — Madame de Chev- 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

reuse the true Chief of the Party of the Importants.— Defeated in her eflforts 
to gain the Queen, she resolves to have recourse to other means. — A Crisis 
becomes inevitable ; it occurs on the occasion of the Quarrel between Madame 
de Montbazon and Madame de Longueville, . . . . .84 



CHAPTER lY. 

Conspiracy of Madame de Chevreuse and Beaufort against Mazariu. — La Eoche- 
fouoauld and Eetz deny this Conspiracy. — Plan and Details of the whole Affair, 
as gathered from the Carnetg and Letters of the Cardinal and the Memoirs 
of Henri de Campion, ........ 125 



MADAME DE CHEVEEUSE; 

OR, 

SECRET HISTORY OF THE FREN"CH COURT UNDER 
RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 



Mmt k €\)tkmu atiJr llklrrii^tt* 



CHAPTER I. 

leoo-iesY. 

Character and personal appearance of Madame de Chevreuse — Her birth and her first 
and second marriages — Intimate friendship with Anne of Austria — Count Hol- 
land — Prince de Chalais — First Exile — Charles IV. Duke of Lorraine — Eeturn to 
France — Richelieu and Chateauneuf — Madame de Chevreuse banished again to 
Touraine — Affairs of 1637 — Second Exile ; flight to Spain. 

If our readers are not wearied with our portraits of the 
women of the seventeenth century, we should be glad to 
present to them two new figures equally, though differently 
remarkable — two persons whom the caprice of Fate cast in the 
same age, the same party, amidst the same events, but who 
far from resembling each other, expressed, as we may say, 
the two opposite sides of the character, and the destiny of 
woman—both endowed with resplendent beauty, marvellous 
talent, and indomitable courage ; yet the one as pure as beauti- 
ful, uniting in herself grace and dignity, everywhere inspiring 
love and commanding respect, at one time the idol and the 
favorite of a king without even the shadow of an injurious 
suspicion daring to raise itself against her, proud, even to 
haughtiness, towards the prosperous and powerful, gentle and 



2 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

corapassionate to the oppressed and miserable, loving great- 
ness, placing naught but virtue above position, mingling to- 
gether the sparkling wit of a precieuse^ the fastidiousness of 
a fashionable beauty, the intrepidity of a heroine, the digni- 
ty of a high-born lady, above all a Christian without bigotry, 
yet devou-t, and even austere, leaving behind her an odor of 
sanctity ; ^ the other, perhaps more fascinating, of an irresist- 
ible grace and vivacity, full of talent, yet very ignorant, shar- 
ing in all the perils of the Catholic party, but scarcely think- 
ing of religion, too proud to condescend to prudence, and 
curbed only by honor, devoted to gallantry, and counting all 
else as nothing, despising for the one whom she loved, danger, 
opinion and fortune, more restless than ambitious, and willing- 
ly staking her own life, as well as that of others ; and after hav- 
ing passed her youth in intrigues of every sort, thwarting more 
than one plot, leaving on her path more than one victim, trav- 
elling over Europe as an exile, yet a conqueror, turning the 
heads of kings, — after having seen Chalais mount the scafifold, 
Chateauneuf expelled from the ministry, the Duke of Lorraine 
almost despoiled of his estates, Buckingham assassinated, the 
King of Spain engaged in an unsuccessful war. Queen Anne 
humiliated and vanquished, and Richelieu triumphant ; sus- 
taining the struggle to the end, always ready in this game of 
politics which had become her necessity gnd her passion, to 
descend to the darkest intrigues, and to make the rashest re- 
solves ; of an incomparable eye for recognizing the true posi- 
tion of affairs, and the enemy of the moment, and of a mind 
strong enough, and a heart bold enough to undertake to de- 
stroy him at any cost 5 a devoted friend, an implacable enemy 
almost without knowing hatred, in short, the most redoubtable 



* The author alludes here to his life of Madame de Hautefort, which 
followed that of Madame de Chevreuse. Each biography, however, is 
complete in itself; this being the only allusion in the present volume tp 
the subsequent memoir of Madame de Hautefort.— Traw.sZa^or's Noite. 



tJNDEK EICHELIEF AND MAZAEIN. 3 

enemy encountered in turn by Richelieu and by Mazarin. 
The reader will easily divine that we speak of Madame de 
Hautefort and of Madame de Chevreuse. 

Need we add that we do not intend to trace here fancy 
portraits, and that if we sometimes seem to recount romantic 
adventures, it is in conformity with all the rigor of the laws 
of history. These sketches, though fanciful in appearance, are 
worthy of the fullest confidence, and will soon be acknowledged 
as resting upon the testimoDy of approved cotemporary wit- 
nesses, or upon authentic documents as reliable as new, which 
will bear the scrutiny of the most exacting critic. 

We commence with Madame de Chevreuse. She dates 
further back in the seventeenth century than does Madame 
de Hautefort — she at least precedes if she does not excel her. 
It must also be said that she filled a more lofty station, and 
played a more conspicuous part, and that her name belongs as 
much to the history of the politics as of the society of her age. 

Madame de Chevreuse in truth ^ possessed almost all the 
qualities of a great politician, a single one was wanting, and 
it was the one precisely without which all the others ran to 
waste — she did not know how to propose to herself a just aim, 
or rather she never chose one for herself; it was another that 
chose for her. Madame de Chevreuse was a woman in the fullest 
sense — in this was her strength, and also her weakness. Her 
first impulse was love, or rather gallantry, and the interests of 
the one whom she loved became her chief aim. Here lies the 
solution of the prodigies of sagacity, adroitness and energy 
which she displayed in vain in the pursuit of a chimera, which 

^ Madame de Motteville, vol. i., Amsterdam edition of 1750, page 
198 : — "I heai'd her say to herself one day when I was eoraplimenting 
her on having taken part in all the great events of Europe, that ambition 
had never touched her heart, but that affection had guided it, that is, 
that she had interested herself in the affairs of the world solely through 
sympathy with those whom she had loved." The passages of Retz, which 
we shall quote presently, may be reduced to the same iiiterpretatiou. 



4 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

constantly receded from her grasp, while it seemed to lure her 
on by the very prestige of difficulty and danger. Rochefou- 
cauld accuses her of having brought misfortune on all whom 
she loved ;^ it is also just to say that all who loved her precip- 
itated her in turn into their own mad enterprises. It was not 
she, apparently, who made of Buckingham a sort of Paladin 
without genius, of Charles IV. a brilliant adventurer, of 
Chalais a madman insane enough to pledge himself against 
Kichelieu on the faith of the Duke of Orleans, and of Chateau- 
neuf a restless second-rate aspirant, without being capable of 
attaining to be first. One must not believe that he knows 
Madame de Chevreuse when he has read the celebrated por- 
trait which Retz has drawn of her, for this is exaggerated and 
overdrawn like all those of Retz, and was designed solely to 
gratify the malignant curiosity of Madame de Caumartin — 
without being really false, it is severe almost to injustice. Did 
it belong, indeed, to the restless and intemperate accomplice to 
become the pitiless censor of a woman in whose errors he had 
shared ? Was he not also as much deceived as she, and for 
a much longer time ? Did he show in the combat more ad- 
dress and courage, and in the defeat, more intrepidity and 
constancy ? But Madame de Chevreuse has written us no 
memoirs in the easy and piquant style in which she retrieved 
her fortunes at the expense of the world. For our own part, 
we recognize two judges of her whose testimony cannot be 
regarded with suspicion — Richelieu and Mazarin. Richelieu 
did his best to gain her, and failing to succeed, treated her as 
an enemy worthy of himself; he exiled her repeatedly, and 
even after his death, when the gates of France were opened to 
all the outlaws, his implacable resentment — surviving him in 
the mind of the dying Louis XIII., closed them still upon her 
Read the carnets (note-books) and the confidential letters of 

^ Memoirs of Madame de Motteville, Coll. Petitot, second series, 
vol. ii., p. 339. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 5 

Mazarin attentively, and you will detect there the deep and 
continual anxiety which she caused him in 1643. Later, during 
the Fronde, he is found to be reconciled to her, and following 
her counsels, as judicious as they are bold. Finally, in 1660, 
when Mazarin, -victorious everywhere, adds the treaty of the 
Pyrenees to that of Westphalia, and when Don Luis de Haro 
congratulates him on the repose which he is about to taste 
after so many storms, the cardinal replies, that one never can 
promise himself repose in France, and that even the women 
there are greatly to be feared. " You Spaniards may well 
speak of your ease, " said he ; " your women trouble themselves 
about nothing but love ; but it is not so in France ; we have 
three there now who would be quite capable of governing or of 
overthrowing three great kingdoms — the Duchess de Longue- 
ville, the Princess Palatine and Madame de Chevreuse. " ^ 

But first a word of the beauty of Madame de Chevreuse, 
for this beauty had a great share in her destiny. All her 
cotemporaries unite in celebrating it. A portrait nearly of 
life-size, which is in the possession of the Duke de Luynes, 
and which he has courteously shown to us," gives her an en- 
chanting figure, a charming face, large blue eyes, fine and 
luxuriant chestnut-hair, a beautiful bust, and a piquant min- 
gling of refinement and vivacity, grace and passion in her whole 
person. This indeed was the character of the beauty of 
Madame de Chevreuse ; we find it again in the excellent en- 
graving of Daret,^ which Harding has republished in England, 

' Vie de Madame de Longueville^ by Yillefore, edition of 1*739, sec- 
ond part, p. 83. Madame de Motteville, vol. i., Ihid: — "I have heard 
him say to those who were well acquainted with him, that no one had 
ever understood the interests of princes so well, or talked so well about 
them, and I have even heard him praise her capacity." 

"^ This portrait is not an original, but a very ancient copy, 
' See the collection in quarto of Daret, dedicated to Madame de 
Chevreuse herself. There is another engraved portrait of Madame de 
Chevreuse, which is very rare, in the collection of Leblond, in foho. 



6 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

and also in the picture of Ferdinand EUe/ whicli represents 
her as a widow and aged. We feel in this last portrait that 
her dazzling beauty has passed away, but that acuteness, 
dignity, vivacity and grace are still surviving. 

Marie de Rohan belonged to that ancient and illustrious 
family, the issue of the first sovereigns of Brittany, which, 
with its different branches, without counting its alliances, 
spread itself over, and long possessed, a considerable part of 
Brittany, dividing itself almost equally between the Catholic 
and the Protestant party in the sixteenth, and the commence- 
ment of the seventeenth centuries, zealously obeying royalty, 
and holding it in check by turns, and whose hereditary traits, 
strongly marked in both sexes, were loftiness of soul, bravery, 
and constancy. At the siege of Kochelle, two women, after 
enduring all the rigors of famine with the meanest of the 
soldiers, and subsisting like them upon horseflesh, chose rather 
to remain as prisoners in the hands of the enemy than to sign 
the articles of capitulation. These were the mother and the 
sister of the celebrated Duke de Rohan, one of our greatest 
warriors before Conde, and unquestionably our greatest mili- 
tary writer before Napoleon. The wife of this same Henri de 
Kohan defended Castres against the Marshal de Themines. 
During the lapse of centuries, this noble house has not ceased 
to produce heroines of a resolute spirit, as well as beauties 
more brilliant than severe. In this respect, she whose history 
we are about to trace, showed no degeneracy from her race, 
she was truly of the blood of the Rohans. 

She was daughter of Hercules de Rohan, Duke de Mont- 
She is younger than in that of Daret, with an oval countenance, large 
eyes, a fine bust, and with hair curled and craped in the style of the 
beginning of the reign of Louis XIII. As to the ugly little portraits of 
Moncornet, they have no resemblance to Madame de Chevreuse at any 
age. 

^ The original of Ferdinand EUe is at the house of the Duke de 
Luynes. Balechou has engraved it for L Europe Illustre. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 7 

bazon, a zealous servant of Henri TV., Peer and Master of 
the Hounds, and Grovernor of Paris and of the Isle of Francej 
and of his first wife, Madeleine de Lenoneourt, sister of Urbain 
de Laval, Marshal de Bois-Dauphin. Born almost with the 
seventeenth century, in December, 1600, she lost her mother at 
a very early age, and in 1617 espoused that audacious favorite 
of Louis XIII., who, on the faith of the fickle friendship of a 
king, dared attempt to overthrow the authority of the queen- 
mother, Marie de 31edicis, destroyed the Marshal d'Aucre, 
combated the Princes and the Protestants at the same time, 
and attempted against Bichelieu himself the system of Biche- 
lieu. Let us ask in passing. Is it not unworthy of history to 
attribute the elevation of Luynes to the caprice of a king, who 
takes one of his pages, a petty gentleman, for his prime min- 
ister, solely because he finds him skilful in the art of training 
falcons ? Sach, perhaps, was the beginning of the fortunes of 
Luynes, — such was not the cause of it. This petty gentleman, 
son of Captain de Luynes, as he was called, one of the bravest 
and most intelligent of the officers of Henri IV., was him- 
self a man of talent and courage, who, under the direct inspira- 
tion of Louis XIII., honorabl}'' restored and sustained while he 
lived the work of the great king which Bichelieu had at first 
opposed in his character of the favorite of Marie de Medicis, 
and which he afterwards undertook with great zeal, gradually 
turning against his old friends and his first protectress, so far 
as to exile her precisely as De Luynes had done.* The young 

^ The reader should not be duped by the memoirs of Richelieu, which 
are designed, like all memoirs, to deceive posterity in favor of the author. 
Richelieu did not begin his career as he finished it. He commenced as 
a partisan of the Spanish Alliance to please the queen-mother. There is 
a production of Richelieu, now very rare, entitled. Harangue prononcee 
en la salle du Petit Bourbon, le 23 fevrier, 1615, a la cldture des Hats 
tenus a Paris, par reverend pere en Dieu, messire Armand Jean du Plessis 
de Richelieu, evesque de LuQon. In this, Richelieu congratulates the 
king, who was of age, on having " restored the reins of this great em- 



8 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FREISTCH COURT 

and ambitious constable was well fitted to please the bold heart 
of the beautiful Marie, and she loved him faithfully. She had 
one daughter, a devotee, who died unmarried, and a son who 
played a role in the seventeenth century by his liaisons at 
Port Royal, translated into French the Meditations of Des- 
cartes, wrote estimable works of piety, under the name of M. 
de Laval, and continued the illustrious house. 

The Duchess and Constabless de Luynes, left a widow in 
16^21, in 1622 espoused in a second marriage Claude de Lor- 
raine, Duke de Chevreuse, one of the sons of Henri de Guise, 
Grand Chamberlain of France. His greatest merit lay in his 
name, and the good looks and valor which could never be 
wanting in a prince of the house of Lorraine ; but he was dis- 
orderly in his business, and disagreeable in his manners, 
which may explain and extenuate the faults of his wife. Three 
dauohters were born of this new marriasfe, two of whom died 



pire to the hands of the queen, his mother, so that she might have for 
some time the guidance of his estates." Spain and France "being 
united, have nothing to fear ; while separated, they can only receive injury 
from each other." Let us add that Luynes, struck with the talents of 
Richelieu, ended by extricating him from disgrace ; that he proposed to 
restore him to public life, and, to attach him to himself, caused the niece 
of Richelieu, Mademoiselle du Pont de Courlay, afterwards Duchess de 
Aiguillon, to espouse his own nephew, Combalet. Richelieu therefore was 
at that time regarded as serving Luynes in an underhand way, and it is 
principally to efface and contradict this well-founded rumor, that, uniting 
all the foibles and weaknesses of vanity to the aspirations and ambition of 
pride, he attempts in his memoirs to decry the constable, reproaching him 
with that of which he himself was afterwards guilty. Luynes resolutely 
attacked and promptly subdued the rebellious princes, and by means of 
the treaty of Angouleme secured the queen-mother in a necessary exile 
without useless rigor. When Rohan and Soubise dared to draw the 
sword, the new Duke de Luynes gained the title of constable by opposing 
the Protestants, and he undertook the siege of Montauban, the precursor 
of that of La Rochelle. In 1620, Beam was definitively incorporated 
with the crown. This is an abstract of the whole of Richelieu's career. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 9 

in convents, ' the third was the beautiful and celebrated Made- 
moiselle de Chevreuse, who was weak enough to listen to Retz, 
if we may believe his assertions, for which he repaid her by cari- 
caturing her for the diversion of the one for whom he wrote.'^ 

The new Duchess de Chevreuse had been appointed super- 
intendent of the queen's household during the life-time of her 
first husband, and had soon become the favorite of Anne of 
Austria as the constable was the favorite of Louis XIII. The 
court at that time was very brilliant, and gallantry the order 
of the day. Marie de Rohan was naturally gay and spirited. 
She yielded to the allurements of youth and pleasure. She 
had lovers, and these lovers forced her into politics. Retz 
himself admits this in the following passage, too famous to be 
omitted here, though we must first remark that even if it have 
a groundwork of truth, the coloring is greatly exaggerated : ^ 
" I never saw any one else," he says, " in whom intuition could 
supply the place of judgment. She often suggested expedients 
so brilliant that they seemed like flashes of lightning, and so 
wise that they would not have been disowned by the greatest 
men of any age. Yet these were only called forth by the occa- 
sion. If she had lived in an age in which there were no politics, 
she never would have invented any. If the prior of the Car- 
thusians had pleased her, she would have become a recluse in 
good faith. M. de Lorraine first forced her into public affairs, 



* One, Anne Marie de Lorraine, died in 1652, aged eighteen, the 
Abbess of the Port aux Dames ; the other, Henriette de Lorraine, was 
Abbess de Jouarre. The latter must not be confounded with her niece, 
Madame Albert de Luynes, who, with one of her sisters, was also a de- 
votee at Jouarre, and to whom Bossuet wrote so many touching letters. 
Henriette de Lorraine had some disputes with her bishop respecting the 
extent of the power of abbesses, and, after yielding, she retired to Port 
Royal, where she died in 1694. — Gallia Christiana^ vol. viii., p. 1715; 
Vie de Bossuet^ by M. de Beausset, vol. ii. Book vii. 

^ Vol. i. of the Amsterdam edition, 1131, p. 221. 

^ Ibid., p. 219. 

1* 



10 SECRET HISTOET OF THE FRENCH COURT 

the Duke of Buckingham and Count Holland sustained her in 
them, Chateauneuf interested her in thera. She abandoned 
herself to them as she would unhesitatingly have abandoned 
herself to any thing that pleased the one whom she loved, with- 
out choicp, and simply because it was necessary to her nature 
that she should love some one. She was easily persuaded to 
accept of any lover/ but when she had once taken him, she 
loved him truly and faithfully, and she has confessed to Madame 
de Rhodes and myself that, by a strange caprice, those whom 
she had most esteemed she had never loved, with the exception 
of the unhappy Buckingham. Her devotion to a passion 
which may be called eternal, however often she may have 
changed its object, did not prevent a patch upon her face from 
abstracting her attention,^ but she always returned to her sub- 
j jct with a i'ascii.ating grace that made this little break absolutely 
end anting. In ever did person care less for perils, and never 
had woman more contempt for scruples and for duties, — she 
knew no duty but that of pleasing her lover." Of this sketch, 
which might have moved Tallemant to envy, retain at least 
these striking and faithful traits — the prompt and sure pene- 
tration of Madame de Chevreuse, her indomitable couraofe, and 
her loyalty and devotion in love. Besides, Retz is entirely 
mistaken as to the order of her adventures, he foro-ets some, 
and he invents others ; he seems to regard the events in which 
the passions of Madame de Chevreuse caused her to take part 
as trifles, while in fact there were none greater or more trag- 
ical. Let us throw aside this trifling and frivolous style, and 
seek in its stead to establish the truth. 

The young queen, Anne of Austria, and her youthful super- 

' A ridiculous calumny, the sole pretext of which .is he last liaison of 
Madame de Chevreuse daring the Fronde. See our last chapter. 

'■^ This accusation simply means that " Madame de Chevreuse was 
subject to fits of abstraction during her conversation," as Madame de 
Motteville informs us. Vol. i., p. 198. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 11 

intendent, who were nearly of the same age, only occupied 
themselves at first with frivolous pastimes. Anue, neglected 
by her husband, consoled herself with the society and the 
lively and happy humor of Madame de Chevreuse. They 
passed their time together, making of every thing " food for 
their wit and pleasantry : a giovine cuor tuito e giuoco.'''' Lord 
Kich, afterwards the celebrated Count Holland, of the house 
of Warwick, came to the French court at the close of 1624, or 
the commencement of 1625, to demand the hand of the beauti- 
ful Henriette, sister of Louis XIII., for the Prince of Wales, 
who soon after became Charles I. During this negotiation, 
the Count became enamored with Madame de Chevreuse. He 
was young and singularly handsome ; he pleased her, and won 
her over to the interests of England. This was, I believe, the 
true debut of Madame de Clievreuse, both in love and in poli- 
tics. Holland, who was volatile, and a lover of pleasure and 
intrigue,' persuaded her to entangle her royal friend in some 
love affair like their own. Anne of Austria was vain and 
coquettish, she loved to please, and with her country's taste for 
gallantry, aided by the freedom in which she was left by Louis 
XIII., she did not interdict herself from accepting homage; 
but here the game was not without danger, and the handsome 
and elegant Buckingham succeeded in seriously troubling the 
heart of the queen. It was not the fault of Madame de Chev- 
reuse if Anne of Austria did not wholly yield. Buckingham 
was rash and the superintendent complaisant; and the queen 
only escaped at a perilous risk. 

Whatever Ketz may say of it, we doubt very much whether 
Buckingham was ever any thing more to Madame de Chevreuse 
than the intimate friend of her lover, and the chief of the party 
into which Holland had drawn her. She saw him for the first 



^ La Rochefoucauld, ibid., p. 340 ; La Porte, 3femoires, Coll. Petitot, 
2d series, vol. lix., p. 295 : " One of the handsomest men in the world, 
but of an effeminate beauty." 



12 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

time in May, 1625, when lie came to France to espouse Ma- 
dame in behalf of Charles I.,, and, at that time, Buckingham 
was in the height of his infatuation for Queen Anne, while 
Madame de Chevreuse was in love with Count Holland, whom 
she soon rejoined in England, having had the art to cause her- 
self to be appointed to escort the new Princess of Wales to her 
husband. Now, when Madame de Chevreuse loved, as Retz 
himself affirms, she loved faithfully and exclusively. At the 
age of twenty-four, one does not trifle with a first attachment 
to the extent of giving one's own lover to another, and the role 
which the poor woman already plays in this affair is not so 
honorable as to make us delight to vilify her still more. Ma- 
dame de Chevreuse fell ill, it is true, on hearing the news of 
the assassination of Buckingham. Nothing was more nat- 
ural ; she lost in him a tried friend, the confidant of her first 
love, and the chief and the hope of the enemies of Richelieu. 
To the obscure insinuations of Betz, should be opposed the 
clear and connected account of La Kochefoucauld, and above 
all, the silence of Tallemant,^ who would not have failed to 
add this item to his scandalous chronicles, had he ever heard 
the story. Thus, without pretending to scan such things 
clearly, especially after the lapse of two centuries, but follow- 
ing our rule of admitting nothing except from sure testimony, 
we incline to the belief that the Duke of Buckingham should 
be struck from the list, still very numerous, of the lovers of 
Madame de Chevreuse, and that the handsome Chalais was the 
immediate successor of the elegant Count Holland in the heart 
of the beautiful duchess. 

Without making of the conspiracy of Chalais, as Bichelieu 
would have it, " the most frightful conspiracy of which history 
has ever made mention," ^ we cannot refuse to admit that it was 
not so trifling an affair as Chalais asserted, trembling for his 

^ Vol. i., p. 241. 
' Alemcires of Richelieu in the Coll. Petitot, vol. iii., p. 64. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 13 

head. The court of Monsieur was already a focus of in- 
trigues against Kichelieu. Monsieur did not like his proposed 
marriage with Mademoiselle de Montpensier, and Anne of 
Austria, on her side, who had as yet no children, feared a mar- 
riage which might some day take the crown from her head, and 
transfer it to the house of Orleans. Henri de Talleyrand, 
Prince de Chalais, of the house of Perigord, came to the aid of 
Monsieur and the queen ; he planned some dark intrigue' which 
Richelieu, perhaps, exaggerated, but which he succeeded in 
so firmly establishing in the mind of the king, that Louis XIII. 
not only abandoned Chalais as afterwards he abandoned Cinq- 
Mars, but remained persuaded during his whole life that 
the queen had been implicated in the affair, and that, he being 
dead or dethroned, she and Monsieur had entertained the 
thought of a union. Chalais mounted the first scaffold erected 
by Kichelieu, despite the tears of his aged mother. Monsieur 

^ La Rochefoucauld, ibid., p. 339 : " Chalais was master of the ward- 
robe ; his person and mind were attractive, and he was devotedly at- 
tached to Madame de Chevreuse. He was accused of having formed a 
design against the life of the king, and of having proposed to Monsieur to 
break off his marriage with a view ot espousing the queen on his acces- 
sion to the throne. Although this crime was not fully proved, Chalais 
was beheaded, and the cardinal had but little difficulty in persuading the 
king that the queen and Madame de Chevreuse had not been ignorant of 
the design of Chalais." Fontenay-Mareuii, Memoires^ Coll. Petitot, vol. 
li., p. 23 : " M. de Chalais was young, well formed, expert in all kinds 
of exercise, and above all, agreeable in society ; which rendered him a 
great favorite among the women, who finally caused his ruin. Fontenay 
says that in the midst of the affair, and despite all his pledges, he became 
reconciled to Richelieu, but that Madame de Chevreuse reproached him 
so bitterly and urged him on so strongly, that, nothing being impossible 
to a woman of so much beauty and wit, he was unable to resist her, and 
chose rather to be unfaithful to the cardinal and himself than to her, so 
that he had no sooner caused Monsieur to change his opinion, than he 
rendered him again more rebellious than ever. Had he merely counsel- 
led Monsieur to leave the court to go to La Rochelle, no one could have 
saved him ; but it is said, and many believed it, that he went much farther. 



14 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

extricated himself from the affair by espousing Mademoiselle 
de Montpensier, the queen fell more deeply than ever into dis- 
grace, and Madame de Chevreuse, perfidiously denounced by 
the Duke of Orleans, and also by Chalais himself, who, with 
his dying breath, vainly denied his first confessions, was con- 
demned to depart from France. What part had she had in this 
conspiracy ? That which both love and friendship had forced 
upon her. Chalais was her lover, and she was devoted to 
Anne of Austria. She was no more the originator of this plot 
than of any of the others which the Duke of Orleans so often 
commenced but never finished ; but, on entering it, she brought 
into it all her ardor and her energy. Richelieu says, and 
we believe him, that " she did more harm than any one else." * 
She dearly learned the cost of loving a queen too well. Anne 
of Austria escaped with a slight humiliation, but her cour- 
ageous confidant saw the man whom she loved perish by the 
hand of the executioner, and herself torn from all the refine- 
ments of life, from the fetes of the Louvre and from her beauti- 
ful chateau of Dampierre, and forced to seek an asylum in a 
foreign land. '* Then," says Richelieu, " she was transported 
with rage." She even went so far as to say that they did not 
know her ; that they thought that she only had mind enough 
for coquetry, but she would show them in tinae that she was 
capable of something else ; that there was nothing that she 
would not do to avenge herself; and that she would abandon 
herself to a soldier of the guards rather than not obtain satis- 
faction from her enemies. She wished to go to England, where 
she was sure of the support of Holland, of Buckingham, and 
of Charles I. himself. This favor was not accorded her; her 
imprisonment was even talked of, and it was with difficulty 
that her husband obtained permission for her to retire into 
Lorraine. 

It is well known that, instead of a refuge, she found there 

^ Memoir es^ vol. iii., p. 105. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAKIN. 15 

a most brilliant triumph. She dazzled, seduced and urged 
on the impetuous and adventurous Charles lY.' She was 
not, as La Rochefoucauld has said, and as others have so 
often repeated, the primary cause of the misfortunes of this 
prince ; — no, the true cause of the misfortunes of Charles IV. 
lay in his own character — in his presumptuous ambition, 
open to every wild fancy, which had to encounter such a 
politician as Kichelieu. Let us not forget that these two 
personages were embroiled long before Madame de Chev- 
reuse set foot in Nancy. Kichelieu claimed several por- 
tions of the estates of the duke, who, being placed between 
Austria and France, began the warfare by declaring in favor 
of the former against the latter. He was the man the best 
fitted of all others to share the sentiments of Madame de 
Chevreuse, as she was admirably suited to second his designs. 
She found Charles IV. already pledged to Austria, she at- 
tached him to England, then ruled by Buckingham ; she 
also established intelligence with Savoy, and thus formed a 
European league by which she secured to the interior the sup- 
port of the Protestant party, controlled by her relatives, Kohan 
and Soubise. The plan was well laid; an English fleet, com- 
manded by Buckingham himself, would disembark at the Isle 
of Be and join the Protestants of La Bochelle; the Duke of 
Savoy would make a descent at the same time upon Dauphiny 
and Provence ; and the Duke de Bohan, at the head of the 
Beformers, would stir up Languedoc, while the Duke of Lor- 
raine should march towards Paris by the way of Champagne. 
The principal agent of this plan, charged with bearing mes- 

^ Here, as well as in respect to the early part of the life of Madame 
de Chevreuse, we refer our readers to the work of Count d'Haussonville, 
Histoire de la reunion de la Lorraine a la France, with inedited notes, 
proofs and historical documents, of which excellent treatise we would 
give a more extended eulogy if competent critics had not anticipated us 
by diffusing the knowledge, wit and elegance which illuminate its pages. 



16 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

sages to all the interested parties, was Lord Montagu, an inti- 
mate friend of Holland and of Buckingham, who, it is said, 
also suffered himself to be captivated by the charms of Madame 
do Chevreuse. 

Kichelieu, forewarned by his own sagacity, and by his 
police, watched all the movements of Montagu, dared to 
cause his arrest on the Lorraine territory,^ seized his papers, 
discovered the whole conspiracy, and faced it with his ac- 
customed vigor. The principal attack upon the Isle of Re 
was foiled, and Buckingham forced to an ignominious re- 
treat. La Boehelle soon after yielded to the perseverance 

^ Queen Anne was so deeply involved in this intrigue, that sho 
trembled for her own safety when news of the arrest of Montagu reached 
her, and she could not rest until she was well assured that she was not 
named in the papers of the prisoner, and would not be mentioned in his 
examination. La Porte, Memoires, p. 304 : " The news of the arrest of 
Lord Montagu threw the queen into the greatest anxiety. She feared that 
she was named in his papers, and that when this came to the ears of the 
king, with whom she did not live on very good terms, he would treat her 
harshly and send her to Spain, as he assuredly would have done. So great 
was her disquietude, that she neither ate nor slept. In this embarrass- 
ment she recollected that I was in a company of gendarmes which be- 
longed to the troops appointed to attend Lord Montagu. She therefore 
inquired for me of Lavau, who found me and conducted me after mid- 
night to the chamber of the queen, whence all had withdrawn. She told 
me of her anxiety, and that, having no person in whom she could confide, 
she had sought me, believing that I would serve her from affection and 
with fidelity, and that her safety or destruction depended on the news 
•which I should bring to her. She told me the whole affair, and said that 
I must endeavor in my attendance on Lord Montagu, to speak to him 
and to learn whether she was named in the papers which had been tak- 
en, and whether, in the event of his being examined whila.in the Bastille, 
and urged to reveal the confederates of this league, he would refrain from 
naming her. ... I related the trouble of the queen to Lord Mon- 
tagu, who replied that she was neither directly nor indirectly named in 
the papers, and assured me that, if he were questioned, he would die rather 
than say aught that might injure her. La Porte says that w^hen he 
brought back this answer to the queen, she danced for joy. 



TJJSTDEK EICHELIEU AND MAZAELN-. 1*7 

and skill of the cardinal, the vanquished coalition was dis- 
solved, and England sued for peace, placing, among its most 
urgent conditions, the return of the beautiful exile, now be- 
come a political power for whom peace or war was made. 
" She was a princess who was much loved in England, and one 
for whom the king entertained an especial regard, and he 
would assuredly have insisted on including her in the treaty 
of peace if he had not been ashamed of making mention of a 
woman in it ; but he would be greatly obliged if his majesty 
would not displease him in this. She had a fine mind, a potent 
beauty which she knew how to use to advantage, was never 
disheartened by any misfortune, and always retained her even- 
ness of temper ;" ^ a less brilliant, but far more just and faithful 
portrait than that of Retz, and which may have been drawn by 
Richelieu's own hand, as it is probable that the cardinal, ac- 
cording to his custom, has here recapitulated the propositions 
of Montagu in his own style, instead of copying them verbatim. 
Be this as it may, Richelieu, who ardently desired to disengage 
himself from the Rohans, the Protestants, and England, in 
order to direct all his forces against Spain, accepted the desired 
condition, and Madame de Chevreuse returned to Dampierre. 

A few years of tranquillity followed this turbulent life. 
Marie de Rohan reappeared at court in all her beauty. She 
was not yet thirty years of age, and one could scarcely look at 
her with impunity. Richelieu himself was not insensible to 
her charms;^ he endeavored to please her, bat his homage 
was not accepted. To the all-powerful cardinal, Madame de 
Chevreuse preferred one of his ministers; and the one upon 
whom he had the best reason to count ; she conquered him with 
a glance, and won him over to the party of the queen and the 
malcontents. 

* Memoires of Richelieu, Vol. iv., p. 74. 

"^ Madame de Motteville, Vol. i., p. 62 : " This minister, despite the 
rigor with which he had treated her, had never disliked her ; her beauty 
had charmed him etc." 



18 SECEET HISTOEY OF THE FRENCH COUKT 

Charles de PAubepme, Marquis de Cbateauneuf, of an an- 
cient family of counsellors and secretaries of state, had suc- 
ceeded Michael Marillac in the office of Keeper of the Seals 
in 1630 ; this he owed to the favor of llichelieu, and to the 
attachment which he had shown him. He had carried this 
devotion very far, for he had presided at Toulouse over the 
commission which had sentenced the imprudent and unfortu- 
nate Montmorenci, and had thus drawn upon himself the 
eternal enmity of the Montmorencis and the Condes. Cha- 
teauneuf had therefore given bloody pledges of fidelity to 
Richelieu, and they seemed inseparable. The cardinal had 
loaded him with favors, as was his custom towards his friends. 
Chateauneuf had been appointed chancellor of the royal orders, 
and Governor of Touraine. He was a consummate man of 
business, laborious and active, and endowed with that quality 
which best pleased the cardinal, resolution ; but he had an in- 
ordinate ambition which he retained through life, and which 
when joined with love, rendered him blind to all but his pur- 
pose.* We cannot but smile when we recall the assertion of 

^ Kichelieu, Testament Politique, Chap. i. : " The important post to 
which your majesty had appointed him, the hundred thousand crowns 
which he received each year from your liberahty, the government of one 
of your provinces, all extraordinary marks of favor to a man in his posi- 
tion, were not considerations weighty enough to deter him from becom- 
ing the author of his ovvn ruin." Memoires, Vol. vii., p. 326 : " M. de 
Chateauneuf was made Keeper of the Seals in the belief that he would 
be guided solely by the commandments of the king, and the interests of 
his service, as he had hitherto seemed to have no other design, and had 
been for many years attached to the cardinal, serving him with many 
tokens of affection and fidelity ; but no sooner was he emancipated by 
the authority of his office and placed in an independent position, than 
the designs which before had been concealed by respect and fear, began 
to disclose themselves. He attached himself to the cabals of the court, par- 
tteularly to that of factious women headed by the Duchess de Chevreuse, 
whose conduct had often displeased the king, inasmuch as she had not 
only belonged to all the troublesome factions that had been raised against 
him, but had formerly been herself the very dangerous leader of a party." 



UXDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 19 

Retz, that Chateauneuf amused Madame Chevreuse with pub- 
lic affairs. This amusement must have been of a very peculiar 
nature indeed, since she staked in it her fortune, and sometimes 
her head, and the intrigue in which they both were engaged was 
so rash, that here, at least, it must be admitted that it was not 
Chateauneuf who forced Madame de Chevreuse into it, but 
rather she who urged on the keeper of the seals. 

Chateauneuf was then fifty years of age,^ and the senti- 
ment that he had conceived for Madame de Chevreuse must 
have been one of those fatal passions which precede and mark 
the final departure of youth. As to Madame de Chevreuse, 
she shared to the fullest extent in the dangers and misfortunes 
of Chateauneuf, and never afterwards consented to separate 
his fortunes from her own. In all her aberrations, she at 
least preserved this remnant of honor, that when she loved, 
she loved with unbounded fidelity, and after the passion had 
passed away, she still maintained for its object an inviolable 
friendship. For some time, Richelieu had perceived that his 
keeper of the seals was no longer the same. His suspicious 
nature, seconded by his penetration and his incomparable po- 
lice, had put him on the track of the most secret manoeuvres 
of Chateauneuf, and he afterwards amused himself by collect- 
ing all the proofs of the treason of his former friend in papers 
which have hitherto remained unpublished, and which seem to 
us to be a stray chapter of his Memoires."^ It is said that, 
during an illness which threatened the life of the cardinal, 
Anne of Austria gave a ball, at which Chateauneuf appeared 

^ He was born in 1580. An excellent crayon portrait of D. Demon- 
stier, engraved by Kagot, represents him as keeper of the seals, with a 
firm and lofty bearing. 

"^ We found this curious fragment in the archives of foreign affairs, 
France, vol. ci., being the last article of the volume, under the title : 
Memoire de M. le Cardbial de Richelieu^ contre M. de Chateauneuf^ con- 
sisting of twelve pages in the well-known handwriting of Charpentier, 
one of the secretaries of the cardinal. 



20 SECSET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

and danced ; ^ a signal act of follj which opened the eyes of 
Kichelieu, and incensed him greatly. On the twenty-fifth of 
December, 1633, the keeper of the seals was arrested, and all 
his papers seized. Fifty-two letters in the handwriting of 
Madame de Chevreuse were found, in which, under an easil}'^- 
read cypher and through a transparent disguise, the designs 
of Chateauneuf and the duchess were discovered. There were 
also many letters from the Chevalier de Jars, Count Holland, 
Montagu, Puylaurens, Count de Brion, the Duke de Yendome, 
and even from the Queen of England. These papers were 
carried to the cardinal, who preserved them ; after his death, 
they were found in his casket, and thus fell into the hands 
of the Marshal de Kichelieu, who transmitted them to 
Pere Griffet for his Histoire du regne du Louis XIII.^ 
An ancient copy is now in the possession of the Duke de 
Luynes, whose spirit is too noble to seek to screen from history 
the well-known faults of his illustrious ancestress, especially 
since these faults bear the stamp of a noble heart and lofty 
character. We have carefully examined these curious manu- 
scripts, particularly the letters of Madame de Chevreuse. 
They show that Richelieu was assiduously attentive to her, 
that he was jealous of M. de Chateauneuf,^ and that the latter 
was alarmed by the circumspection which she preserved 
towards the prime minister, the better to conceal from him 
their intercourse and plans. We cannot read without interest 
difierent passages of these letters, in which we perceive the 
sprightly yet audacious wit of the duchess, her power over the 



* Memoires de Richelietiy vol. vii,, p. 148 ; Editor's ISTote. 

^ See this excellent but unappreciated work, vol. ii., p. 392. 

' The jealousy of Richelieu towards Chateauneuf appears in the fol 
lowing extract from the 3femoires of La Porte, ibid., p. 322 : " The 
cardinal questioned me closely about the queen, whether M. de Chateau- 
neuf went often to her palace, if he was late there, and whether he did 
not generally go to the chateau of Madame de Chevreuse." 



UNDEK RICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 21 

keeper of the seals, and her fearless enmity to the cardinal, 
despite the deference with which she treated him : — 

" Madame de Chevreuse complains to M. de Chateauneuf 
of her servant, who has so little faith in the generosity and 
friendship of his master,^ and who does very wrong when he 
asks whether Madame de Chevreuse neglects him to pledge 
herself to the cardinal. You do wrong- to have this thought : 
the mind of Madame de Chevreuse is too noble for treacherous 
sentiments ever to enter it. This is why I regard the favor 
of the cardinal no more than his power, and I shall never do 
any thing unworthy of myself, either for the good which I may 
gain from the one, or the evil which I may suffer from tha 
other. Believe this if you would do me justice. I shall de- 
vote my whole life to you ; and remember that you have the 
advantage here, for I shall take great pleasure in pleasing you, 
and shall suffer much in displeasing you. These, conscien- 
tiously, are my sentiments, and yon have no share in them if 
ever you displease your master. 

*' Madame de Chevreuse has seen the cardinal, who re- 
mained two hours at the palace of the queen. He paid her 
extravagant compliments, and uttered the most extraordinary 
flatteries in the presence of Madame de Chevreuse, to whom 
he spoke very coldly, affecting great negligence and indiffer- 
ence, while she treated him in her usual manner, without seem- 
ing to notice his mood. Upon his attempting to taunt her, 
Madame de Chevreuse jested at him in open defiance of his 
power. This surprised rather than irritated him, for he then 
changed his tone, and attempted courtesies and the greatest 
humility. I do not know whether he acted thus to conceal 
his ill-humor in the presence of the queen, or whether he did 

^ The reader will note that these letters are translated almost ver- 
batim from the original, and that the frequent changes which occur in 
person and tense are designed to throw a veil — transparent enough, it 13 
true — over the correspondence. — ^Note by the Translator. 



22 SECREl' HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

cot wish to embroil himself with Madame de Chevreuse. I 
shall see him to-morrow at two o'clock. I will send you word 
of all that passes. Eest assured that Madame de Chevreuse 
will only live for the world while she lives for you." 

" I believe that I am destined to be the object of the folly 
of madmen. The cardinal is a good proof of this; but what- 
ever trouble his ill-humor may give me, it does not afflict me so 
much as does that of 37/ (probably Brion, or perhaps de Thou,) 
who, without listening to my entreaties, or to the reasons which 
I have given him, insists on visiting Madame de Chevreuse, and 
says that nothing shall prevent him, even though Madame de 
Chevreuse tells him that she does not wish it, for fear of offend- 
ino" the cardinal. Should he discover it, I confess to you that 
the language of 37 troubles me greatly, for I cannot suffer it. 
I am sorry that o7 should have given me so many causes of an- 
noyance after having given me so many reasons to be pleased 
with him. I am resolved not to see him if he come against my 
wishes, and not to receive his letters if he does not repent of 
the manner in which he has addressed Madame de Chevreuse, 
who can suffer this language from none other than you." 

" Madame de Chevreuse has had no news from the cardinal. 
If he is as satisfied with not hearing from me as I am with 
hearing no more from him, he is well pleased, and I am freed 
from that persecution from which may time and our good 
angel deliver us ! 

" The tyranny of the cardinal increases every moment. 
He storms and rages because Madame de Chevreuse does not 
go to see him. I have written to him twice with compliments 
of which he is unworthy, and which I should never have offered 
to him, had it not been for the persecution of M. de Chevreuse, 
who said that these would purchase my repose. I balievo that 



^ In the original, Madame de Chevreuse is designated by number 28 ; 
Chateauneuf by 38 ; the cardinal by 22 ; Louis XIII. by 23 ; Queen 
Anne by 24 ; M. de Chevreuse by 57, etc. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 23 

the favors of the king have carried his presumption to its 
highest j)oiiit. He fancies that he can terrify Madame de 
Chevreuse by his anger, and persuades himself, in my opinion, 
that she will leave nothing untried to appease it ; but she 
is resolved to perish rather than to submit to the cardinal. 
His glory is odious to me. He has said to my husband that 
my caprices were insupportable to a man of his temper, and 
that he was resolved no longer to pay me any special attention, 
since I was incapable of giving my friendship and confidence to 
him alone. I tell you this in confidence. Feign not to know 
it to M. de Chevreuse. He has had a little quarrel with me, 
for he has been so intimidated by the insolence of the cardinal 
that he wishes to persecute me into a base endurance of him. 
I esteem your courage and affiection so highly that I wish you 
to know all the interests of Madame de Chevreuse. She con- 
fides so entirely in you that she believes them to be as safe in 
your hands as in her own. Love your master faithfully, and 
however persecuted he may be, believe that in all his actions 
he will prove himself worthy of love. 

" I shall make no excuses to-day for not having written to 
you, but I wish you to believe that I have not ceased to think 
of you, although my letters have not expressed it to you. I 
can only describe the interview between the cardinal and 
Madame de Chevreuse by saying that he showed as much pas- 
sion for your master as Madame de Chevreuse formerly thought 
existed in the heart of 33 ; ^ but that Madame de Chevreuse 
always regarded as a true passion, whereas she believes this of 
the cardinal to be a feigned one. He told her that he had 
now no secrets from her, and that he would positively do all 
that she commanded him, provided that she would live in such 
a manner with him as to assure him that he stood higher in 
her esteem and confidence than any other on earth. . . . The 
one who promised to bring me news was here yesterday, but 

^ The Duke of Lorraine, or Count Holland. 



24 SECRET PIISTORY OF THE FEEISTCH COCJKT 

was very much cast down ; two or three times he seemed to 
wish to tell me something, and I gave him sufficient opportu- 
nity, but he remained silent, and I know nothing of his senti- 
ments except what I surmise. As soon as I know the truth, 
you shall be informed of it, and I will avail myself of it with 
him and with all the rest as I have promised you ; be sure of 
this, and also that the promises of the cardinal will not shake 
me. Need I assure you of this ? Can it be possible that you 
would even suspect it ? I should be in despair if I believed 
so, but I have too good an opinion of you not to live in the 
certainty that you have not a bad one of mo. 

" I am driven to despair by what the cardinal has de- 
manded of Madame de Chevreuse this evening. He has 
despatched a messenger to her to entreat of her two things : 
first, that she would not speak to Brion, (Francois Christophe 
de Levis, Count de Brion, one of the favorites of the Duke of 
Orleans, the future Duke de Damville,) and second, that she 
would not see M. de Chateauneuf. It is only the last that 
troubles me. However, my resolution of testifying my affec- 
tion to M. de Chateauneuf is strono;er than all considerations 
of the cardinal. I have therefore sent word to the cardinal 
that I cannot refuse the entreaties of M. de Chevreuse that I 
should see M. de Chateauneuf respecting several of his busi- 
ness affairs. My own chief business is to acquit myself of the 
obligations which I owe to M. de Chateauneuf, to whom I am 
more indebted than to any other person. 

" There is no pleasure or fatigue which can prevent me 
from thinking of you, and from giving you tokens of it. 
These three lines are a proof of this truth, and I wish them to 
serve as the assurance of another, namely, that if M. de 
Chateauneuf is as devoted a servant in deeds as in words, 
Madame de Chevreuse will be a more grateful master in actions 
than in lane-uage. 

" I do not doubt the trouble which you are in, and you 
protest that Madame de Chevreuse shares it, believing her the 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 25 

cause. Send me word how I can see you without the knowl- 
edge of the cardinal ; for I will do any thiog you may deem 
proper for this, wishing ardently to converse with you, and 
having many things to say to you which cannot well be ex- 
plained m writing, especially concerning 37' and the cardinal, 
but the latter more particular!}^, having seen him this evening, 
and founo him more than ever resolved to persecute Madame 
de Chevrcuse. He parted on good terms with her, but she 
never found him in such a mood as to-day ; so restless and so 
variable in his manner, now carried away by anger, then paci- 
fied in a moment into extreme humility. He cannot endure 
that Madame de Chevreuse should esteem M. de Chateauneuf, 
but he cannot prevent her ; this I promise you, my faithful 
fccrvant, whom I so call, because I believe him to be such. 
Adieu, I must see you at any cost. Send me an answer, and 
beware of the cardinal, who watches Madame de Chevreuse and 
M. de Chateauneuf, in whom Madame de Chevreuse confides as 
in herself. 

" I would truly have given my life to have seen you yes- 
terday. I went out in the evening, and was near going for 
this purpose to your sister's house, (Elisabeth de L'Aubespine, 
who had married Andre de Cochefilet, Count de Vaucellas.) 
If the cardinal speaks to you. of the visit of Madame de Chev- 
reuse, tell him that it was respecting ihe afi"air of the Princess 
de Giiymene, (sister-in-law of Madame de Chevreuse;) but I 
wish you to seem to be displeased with your master, and to 
despise him. I know that this will be painful to you, never- 
theless you must obey me, because it is absolutely necessary. 
It is for this reason that I recommend it to you. Choose a 
favorable occasion for this. Do not send to my house. You 
shall often have news from me, and during my whole life, 
proofs of my affection. I shall be to-day where you are going. 

" Although I am ill, I will not refrain from telling you the 

* See a preceding reference to 37. 
2 



26 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

result of the visit of Madame de Chevreuse to the cardinal. 
He spoke of his passion, which, he said, was so great as to have 
caused his illness by reason of his displeasure at Madame de 
Chevreuse's conduct towards him. He expatiated in a long 
and querulous harangue upon the actions of jMadame de Chev- 
reuse, particularly respecting M. de Chateauneuf, and con- 
cluded by saying that he could no longer entertain his present 
sentiments for Madame de Chevreuse if she did not express 
her friendship for him differently from her past manner ; to 
which Madame de Chevreuse replied that she had always en- 
deavored to give the cardinal reason to be satisfied with her, 
and that she was now more anxious to please him than ever. 
The cardinal pressed Madame de Chevreuse in the strongest 
manner to discover how M. de Chateauneuf stood with her, 
saying that every one believed them to be extremely intimate, 
which I positively denied. I will say no more to you now, 
but believe that I esteem you as much as I despise him, and 
that I shall never have any secrets from M. de Chateauneuf, 
nor any confidence for the cardinal. 

" I sacredly confirm the promise that I made you. If 
I have seemed to hesitate, it was not because I had since 
changed my mind, but merely to see if you were firm in yours. 
It is true that on this occasion you ask of me that which I 
desire to grant in order to make you more culpable if you fail 
in it, and me more excusable in what I shall Pave done. 

" Should your affection be as perfect as is the ring you 
have sent me, you will never have cause to bluish for having 
made an unworthy gift to your master, nor he for having re- 
ceived one from you. 

" I share in the regret of departing without seeing you. 
Mv hatred of the cardinal's tyranny exceeds your own, but I 
wish to surmount rather than complain of it, since that would 
be the result of courage, and this of weakness. Never have 
I wished to converse with you so much as at this moment. 
The cardinal declares that Madame de Chevreuse will soon be 



r^'DER RICHELIEU AXD MAZARIN. 27 

on ill terms witli you, and that M. de Chateauneuf does not love 
Madame de Chevreuse, and ridicules her with 47, (some un- 
known lady, perhaps Madame de Puisieux, whom Chateau- 
neuf had long loved.) About her, I am in no concern; I 
believe M. de Chateauneuf faithful and affectionate to mo, 
and shall be so to him through my whole life, provided that, 
as he has merited the good opinion which I have formed of him, 
he does not hereafter give me cause to lose it. I am in de- 
spair at not being able to send you to-day the picture of 
Madame de Chevreuse which I promised you. 

" You have pledged yourself to many things, but it is ne- 
cessary that you should know that the slightest failure will 
displease me exceedingly. Beware, therefore, of what you 
promise. It would be dishonorable to you if your actions did 
not conform to your words, and shameful to me if I suffered 
it. I say to you once more that you should not pledge yourself 
to so much if you are not well assured that you will never fail 
in it. I require but little where I do not expect all ; but 
when you have promised this to me, and I have accepted the 
promise, I shall not be satisfied if there is the least reserve. 

" I counsel you, being as yet unable to command and wish- 
ing no longer to advise you, to wear the diamond which I send 
you, so that on seeing the stone which has two peculiarities, one, 
of being firm, the other, so brilliant that it shows the slightest 
defects from afar, you may remember that you must be un- 
shaken in your promises in order to please me, and must be 
guilty of no faults that I may not remark any. 

" The cardinal is in a better humor towards Madame de 
Chevreuse than he has been since his return. He wrote to me 
this evening that he was extremely troubled about my illness, 
that all the favors of the ting failed to give him pleasure while 
I remained in my present condition, and that the gayety of 
M. de Chateauneuf had convinced him that he bore no love to 
Madame de Chevreuse ; that he had heard of her illness with- 
out concern ; and that if Madame de Chevreuse had seen his 



28 SECRET HISTOEY OF THE FEENOH COUET 

air, she would have thought him the most dissembling, or the 
most unfeeling man in the world, and could never have loved 
him, or believed in him again. As to this, Madame de Cliev- 
rcuse promises M. de Chateauneuf that, instead of being gov- 
erned by the cardinal's advice, she will both love him and 
believe in him forever. 

" I believe that M. de Chateauneuf fully belongs to 
Madame de Chevreuse, and I promise j^ou that Madame 
de Chevreuse will ever regard M. de Chateauneuf as her own. 
Though all the world should neglect M. de Chateauneuf, 
Madame de Chevreuse will continue to esteem him so highly 
through her whole life that, if he loves her as truly as he has 
said, he will have reason to be content with his fortune, for all 
the powers of earth could not make me change my resolution. 
I swear this to you, and command you to believe it, and to 
love me faithfully. 

" Last evening the cardinal sent to inquire after the health 
of Madame de Chevreuse, and wrote to her that he was dying 
to see her, and that he had many things to say to her, being 
more than ever devoted to Madame de Chevreuse, who sets 
little value on this protestation, but much on that which M. 
de Chateauneuf has made of being wholly hers. To-morrow I 
will tell you more. Love your master always ; he is ill, and 
has only gone out when obliged for the last two days, but in 
whatever state he may be, and whatever may happen to him, 
he will die rather than fail in any thing he has promised you. 

" At six o'clock last evening, the Cardinal de La Yalette 
came to see Madame de Chevreuse on the part of the Cardinal 
de Richelieu. He addressed her sadly and submissively in 
behalf of his master. After this, he paid a forced admiration 
to Madame de Chevreuse, and offered a thousand gallantries 
which seemed insults to me. I answered him civilly and coldly. 
37 is in despair ; he says that he will destroy himself since 
Madame de Chevreuse will not see him ; that the life which he 
has only cherished in the belief that it would one day be ae- 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 29 

oeptable and useful to Madame de Chevreuse will henceforth 
be a burden to him ; that having lost all hope he has lost the 
wish to live, and that this will be the last importunity that I 
shall receive from him. I hope that your affection is proof 
against every thing. I ask this favor of you, that it may be 
so, and promise you that as long as Madame de Chevreuse 
shall live, you shall receive the same love from her. This let- 
ter was commenced yesterday. The Cardinal de La Valette 
has since sent me a thousand compliments in behalf of the 
Cardinal de Kichelieu. 

" There is no means of saying any thing more about the 
diamond ; but though the cardinal suspects Madame de 
Chevreuse, she will either remove his suspicions, or replace 
them by the conviction that all his prosperity cannot inflaence 
Madame de Chevreuse so far as to make her submit to the ca- 
prices of his whimsical humor. Do not disquiet yourself 
about this a:S"air, but rather think of the health of your master 
who is ill and confined to his bed, for if you lose him, you 
will never find his like in fidelity and affection. 

" I wish to see you as much as you do to converse with 
me, but I am troubled to find the means of doing so, because 
the cardinal must not know that we have met if we would 
not completely unhinge him. Send me word then how I must 
manage to see you without the kuo\7ledge of the cardinal. 

" I shall always command you except this once, when 
I ask a favor of you, which is the greatest that you can 
grant me ; it is that M. de Chateauneaf shall never suspect 
Madame de Chevreuse, but shall rest assured that he will 
never lose the good graces of his master until Madame de 
Chevreuse shall lose her life, which she hopes will not happen 
until she has first proved to M. de Chateauneuf how much he 
is esteemed by Madame de Chevreuse, though this may be 
more than she has promised him. But a good master never 
fears to err in obliging his servant, when he has proved him- 
self full of fidelity and aff"ection. The cardinal wishes to 



30 SECRET HISTORY OF TUE FRENCH COURT 

persuade Madame de Chevreuse that his heart is filled with 
both for her who will not believe his words. I would give 
my life to talk with you, but I know not how to manage t^iis, 
for the cardinal must not know it. Consult with the bearer 
respecting the means fur it, and believe that nothing but death 
can take away the sentiments that I feel for you. 

" Never has there been any thing like the extravagance of 
the cardinal. He has written and sent the strangest complaints 
to Madame de Chevreuse. He says that she has constantly rid- 
iculed him to Germain, (Lord Jermyn, the agent and particular 
friend of the Queen of England,) that he might tell in his 
own country of the contempt in which she holds him ; that 
he knows for a certainty that Madame de Chevreuse and M. 
de Chateauneuf are in correspondence, and that your servants 
are constantly in my house ; that I receive Brion because he 
is his enemy, in order to displease him ; that everybody says 
that he is in love with me, and that he will no lono-er endure 
such conduct. Such is the state of the cardinal's mind. Send 
me word what you think of all this, but feign to know nothing 
of it. I shall see tlie cardinal here, and will inform you of 
all that passes. Believe that whatever may happen to your 
master, he will do nothing that is unworthy of himself, or 
which shall cause you to blush for belonging to him. I am a 
little better in health, and more than ever resolved to esteem 
M. de Chateauneuf till death, as I have promised you." 

What was not the rage of the proud and imperious cardi- 
nal when he acquired certain proof that he had thus been de- 
ceived by a woman and betrayed by a friend ! His vengeance 
fell heavily upon the two guilty ones. The only one of their 
accomplices whom he could reach, the Chevalier de Jars, was 
thrown into the Bastille and condemned to lose his head ; he 
ascended the scaffold and there received his pardon.^ The 
Marquis de Hauterive, brother of the keeper of the seals, es- 



^ Madame de Motteville, vol. i., pp. 62-69. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 31 

caped witli difficulty under cover of the night and took refuge 
in Holland. His nephew, the Marcpis de Leuville, was ar- 
rested and confined for a long time in prison, and he him- 
self was conducted to the citadel of Angoulcme, where he 
remained ten years, while Madame de Chevreuse, treated 
more gently by the cardinal, who had still a remnant of hope, 
received for her sole punishment an order to retire to Dam- 
plerre. But the queen could not dispense with her society, 
and the two friends often wished to meet to console each 
other by talking about their troubles, and probably, also, to 
devise the means of ending them. Often, under cover of the 
evening twilight, Madame de Chevreuse came in disguise to 
Paris, was secretly introduced into the Louvre or the Val-de- 
Grace, saw the queen, and returned at midnight to Dampierre. 
But these clandestine visits were soon discovered, or at least 
suspected, and the faithful and daring confidant of Anne of Aus- 
tria was banished to' Touraine to an estate of her first husband. 
One can easily imagine the mortal ennui which over- 
whelmed the beautiful duchess, thus buried at thirty-three in 
the heart of a province, far from the noise and the splendor of 
Paris, far from all the emotions which were so dear to her, far 
from all intrigues both of politics and of love. It was but a 
dull amusement to her to turn the head of the old Archbishop 
of Tours,^ and to sustain herself she had great need of the 
visits of the young and amiable La Rochefoucauld,^ who lived 

^ La Rochefoucauld, lleynoires, p. 855. He "?^as called Bertrand de 
Chaux, ov D'Eschaux. He must have been then more than eighty years 
old, for we read in the Gazette of the year 164-1, No. 619, p. 315, " Sieur 
D'Eschaux, Archbishop of Tours, Commander of the Order of Saint 
.'^'sprit, and first Almoner to the King, died on the 1st of May at his 
Archiepiscop il palace of Tours, aged eighty-six." 

^ La RoehefoU:-auld, ibid., p. 355 : " Madame de Chevreuse was at 
that time an exile in Tours. The queen had spoken well of me to her; 
she wished to see me, and we soon formed a strong league of friendship. 
I was often charged by both vnih dangerous commissions when going or 
returning." 



32 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

in her neighborhood, and of the letters of Queen Anne. Shr 
remained at Tours four long years, from lGc3 to the middle of 
1637, eraplojing her leisure and activity in concocting a mys- 
terious correspondence between the queen, Charles IV., the 
Queen of England, and the King of Spain. 

What Avas the real nature of this correspondence? Hlth 
erto, all that we have known with certainty has been that i< 
furnished food for the gravest accusations against the queers 
and Madame de Chevreuse. In this correspondence, the 
queen availed herself of the services of one of her valets de 
chambre, named La Porte. Sometimes, too, she retired to 
the Val-de-Grace under the pretence of offering prayers, and 
there wrote letters which the superior, Louise de Milley. 
Mother de Saint Etienne, doubly devoted to Anne of Austria 
both as a Cathalic and a Spaniard/ undertook to forward to 
their address. The queen and her friends believed themselves 
acting under an impenetrable disguise ; but the police of the 
suspicious cardinal were on the alert. A note of Anne to 
Madame de Chevreuse, which had been confided by La Porte 
to a man of whom he believed himself sure, but who betrayed 
him, was intercepted; and La Porte was arrested, thrown into 
a dungeon of the Bastille, and examined in turn by the most 
skilful agents of the cardinal, Laffemas and La Poterie, by 
the chancellor, Pierre Siguier, and by Richelieu himself At 
the same time, the chancellor, accom^panied by the Archbishop 
of Paris, ordered the gates of the Yal-de-Grace to be opened, 
searched the cell of the queen, seized all her papers, and ex- 
amined the superior, the Mother de Saint Etienne, after 



' Gallia Christiana, vol. viii., p. 584. The Mother de Saint 
Etienne was abbess from 1626 until the 13th of August, 1637, when she 
w,is forced to resign, and was succeeded by Marie de Burges, Mother de 
Baint Benoit. Slie was born in Franche-Compte, and her whole family 
were in the service of Spain ; her brother was even governor of Be- 
san9on. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 33 

having coinmacded her through the archbishop to speak the 
truth in the came of the obedience which she owed to him, 
and under penalty of excommunication. The queen also 
had much to endure, and was in great danger. Let us 
hear La Rochefoucauld, who ought to be correctly informed, 
since he was at that time, with Madame de Hautefort and 
Madame de Cheva-euse, the most intimate confidant of Anne 
of Austria : " The queen was accused of having had a corre- 
spondence with the Marquis de Mirabel, Minister of Spain. 
This was construed into an offence against the state. Several 
of her domestics were arrested, and her caskets were seized. 
The chancellor examined her as a criminal; it was proposed 
to imprison her at Havre, to dissolve her marriage, and to re- 
pudiate her. In this extremity, abandoned by every one, des- 
titute of all aid, and daring to confide in no one but Madame 
de Hautefort and me, she proposed to me to fly with them to 
Brussels. Whatever were the difficulties and dangers involved 
in such a project, I can truly say that it gave me the greatest 
joy of my life. I was then at the age in which one has a pas- 
sion for brilliant and adventurous deeds, and I could conceive 
of none more daring than to carry away the queen from her 
husband and from the Carainal de Richelieu, who was jealous of 
her, and at the same time to take away Madame de Hautefort 
from the king, who was enamored with her. Happily, affairs 
changed, the queen was found not guilty, the examination of 
the chancellor justified her, and Madame D'Aiguillon pacified 
the Cardinal de Richelieu." 

All this story seems to us very suspicious. We do not for 
a moment believe that the queen ever entertained the insane 
idea which La Rochefoucauld attributes to her ; he mistook a 
pleasantry of Madame de Hautefort for a serious proposition, 
and relates it here according to his custom to give himself an 
air of importance. Besides, whatever he may say, he was not 
daring enough to undertake so rash an enterprise ; and we shall 
see that he was exceedingly circumspect on much less perilous 

2* 



34 SECRET HISTORY OF TPIE FRENCH COURT 

occasions. The chancellor never required the queen to submit 
to an examination ; the royal dignity positively forbade this ; 
besides, the queen was not then in Paris, neither was she at 
the Val de Grace when the chancellor visited it; she was with 
the king at Chantilly, and every thing was arranged by confi- 
dential explanations between the king, the queen, and Riche- 
lieu, without the intervention of the chief justice. The 
examination of the chancellor did not, therefore, justify the 
queen, nor was she acquitted ; far from that, she was proved, 
and even acknowledged herself to be guilty, and it was to this 
confession that she owed the pardon which was granted her. 
Madame de Motteville explicitly declares this, when vindicat- 
ing the innocence of her mistress, according to her usual cus- 
tom. " The queen," ^ says she, " could only obtain her par- 
don by signing with her own hand an acknowledgment that 
she had been guilty of all the things of which she had been ac- 
cused, and she asked it of the king in the most humble and 
submissive terms. . . Every one believed her to be inno- 
cent. She was so, in truth, as far as the king w^as concerned ; 
but she was guilty if it were a crime to have written to her 
brother and to Madame de Ghevreuse. La Porte, the servant 
of the queen, has himself related to me the particulars of this 
story. He recounted it to me at a time when he was in dis- 
grace, and therefore dissatisfied with this princess, and what he 
told me is worthy of credence. He was arrested on the charge 
of being the bearer of letters of the queen, both to Spain and to 
Madame de Chevreuse. He w^as examined three times in the 
Bastille by La Poterie. The Cardinal de Richelieu wished to 
question him himself in the presence of the chancellor. He or- 
dered him to be brouo-ht to his house iato his own chamber, where 
he was questioned and cross-questioned upon all the points upon 
which they desired to confound the queen. He remained firm 
and avowed nothing . . refusing the gifts and rewards 

•* Memoircs, vol. i., p. 80. 



UNDER EICHELIEtr AND MAZARIN. 35 

"which they proffered him, and choosing rather to die than to 
accuse the queen of crimes of which he said she was innocent. 
The Cardinal de Richelieu admiring his fidelity, yet persuaded 
that he did not speak truly, wished that he might be happy 
enough to have as faithful a servant as this man. A letter of 
the queen, written in cypher, was also discovered, and was 
shown her. She could not but acknowledge it; and, in order 
to prevent any discrepancy, it was necessary to report to La 
Porte this avowal of the queen that he might confirm it. It 
was on this occasion that Madame de Hautefort, who was still 
in the court, generously resolving to sacrifice herself to save 
the queen, disguised herself as a waiting maid, and went to 
the Bastille to convey a letter to La Porte, which she suc- 
ceeded in doing at much risk and danger to herself, through 
the adroitness of the Commander de Jars, then a prisoner 
there. He was an adherent of the queen, and had gained over 
many of the people of the place, who conveyed the letter to 
the hands of La Porte. It apprised him of what the queen 
had confessed, so that being again examined by Laffemas and 
menaced with the question ordinary and extraordinary, he 
feigned to be terrified, and said that if they would send him 
gome officer of the queen, who was a trustworthy man, he 
would confess all that he knew. Laffemas, believing that he 
had gained him, told him that he might name any one whom 
he chose, who would, doubtless, be sent to him. La Porte 
asked for one named Lariviere, an officer of the queen, whom 
he knew to be a friend of Laffemas, and whom he really 
distrusted ; this offer Laffemas accepted with joy. The king 
and the cardinal immediately sent for Lariviere, and com- 
manded him to go to La Porte without seeing the queen, and 
persuaded by their promises, he agreed to do all that they 
wished. He was taken to the Bastille, where he commanded 
La Porte, in the name of the queen, to reveal all that he knew 
concerning her affairs. La Porte faigned to believe that the 
queen had sent him, and told him with much hesitation all that 



36 SECPJET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

the queen had before confessed, protesting that this was all 
he knew. The Cardinal de Richelieu was confounded and the 
king satisfied. La Porte, who is a worthy and honest man, 
has assured me that, having seen the letters in question, and 
knowing their contents, he was astonished that accusations 
could be formed from them agaicst the queen, as they simply 
consisted of sarcasms against the Cardinal de Richelieu, and 
certainly said nothing against the king or the state." La 
Porte, in his Memoires.' confirms this recital of Madame de 
Motteville ; he declares that there was no "finesse" in the 
correspondence of the queen and Madame de Chevreuse, and 
that the whole affair was concerted, in order " to entangle Ma- 
dame de Chevreuse in it, and to make the public believe it 
was a dangerous cabal against the state; for it was the cus- 
tom of his eminence to make trifling matters pass for great 
conspiracies." 

It remains to be discovered whether these were, in truth, 
but " trifiinjo; matters," as La Porte asserts. We have listened 
to the testimony of friends of the queen and of Madame de 
Chevreuse, but we must also hear Richelieu ; ^ above all, we 
must hear those witnesses which are more reliable than all the 
"Memoirs;" namely, the original and authentic documents 
of which Richelieu has written, and which have escaped all 
the historians except Pere Grifiet, who, in this afiair as in 
that of Chateauneuf, gathered every thirg, sifted every thing, 
and then, with the documents in his hand, justified the cardi- 
nal Thanks to these documents, which we too have studied,^ 

^ IlemoireSj p. 358, etc. 

^ IlemoircSj vol. x., p. 195, etc. 

^ These precious document? passed from the casket of the Cardinal 
de Richelieu into the library of the marshal of the same name, who 
transmitted them to Pere Griffet, as he had formerly done the papers of 
Chateauneuf. The National Library has recently acquired them, Svp- 
plement Frangais^ No. 4068, witji the following title : Pieces relatives a 
V affaire du Val dn Grace, IQBl. 



UNDER PaCHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 37 

every disguise is removed ; we read clearly the conduct of Aune 
of Austria; we see, with all deference to La Rochefoucauld, 
Madame de Motteville, and La Poite, that she was certainly 
guilty, and that Madame de Chevreuse was probably her prin- 
cipal accomplice, since she had continued to be as firmly 
leagued with her during her exile in Touraine as at the time 
that she was superintendent of her household. 

Against Madame de Chevreuse, neither whose person nor 
papers were seized, there were merely presumptions — but these 
were very strong presumptions. La Porte, the valet de 
chambre of the queen, and the avowed bearer of the most of 
her letters, belonged to Madame de Chevreuse as much as to 
the queen herself, and even had a room at the Hotel de Chev- 
reuse, which served him as a retreat. The duchess, before 
her departure to Tours in 1633, went twice, privately, from 
Dam.pierre to the Val de Grace, where she had an interview 
with Anne of Austria. Lord Montagu, the well-known agent 
of the Queen of England and the intimate friend of Madame 
de Chevreuse, had also seen the queen once at the Yal de 
Grace. The courageous exile had proposed to her royal friend 
to break her ban and to come in disguise to meet her in Paris. 
She constantly corresponded with the Duke of Lorraine, and 
had but lately received un envoy from him. It is difficult to 
believe that so many intrigues had no other end in view than 
to learn news of the health of the queen. Upon this point the 
proofs are direct; we have her own avowals, signed by her 
own hand. It is very probable that she has not told all, but 
what she has told proves that she had written several times to 
Spain and to Flanders, that is to say, to hostile countries, not 
only to complain of her situation, but also to impart and reveal 
the most important secrets of the French government. 1st. 
She had informed the court at Madrid of the journey of a 
monk who had been sent to Snain on a secret mission. 2d. 
She had given notice that France was endeavoring to make 
terms with the Duke of Lorraine, in order 'that the cabinet at 






38 SECEET HISTORY OF THE EEENCH COURT 

Madrid might take measures to hinder this adjustment. 3d. 
She had also informed them that there was reason to fear that 
England, instead of remaining allied to Spain, would break 
the league and enter into a treaty with France. 

It seems to us either that crimes of state have ceased to 
exist in the world, or else that they are manifest in this affair. 
We see that it was with infinite pains that Anne of Austria 
had been brought to make these avowals. At first she denied 
every thing, and said that if she had written several times to 
Madame de Chevreuse, it had always been on indifferent 
matters. On Assumption day, after receiving the sacrament, 
she sent for her secretary, Le Gras, and swore to him by the 
Holy Communion, which she had just received, that it was 
false that she had had a correspondence with a foreign country, 
and commanded him to go tell the cardinal the oath she had 
just made. She also sent for Father Caussin, a Jesuit and 
confessor to the king, and renewed the same oath to him. 
Two days afterwards, finding that it was impossible to main- 
tain so absolute a denial, she commenced by confessing to 
Kichelieu that she had really written to Flanders to her 
brother, the Infant Cardinal, but merely to inquire after his 
health, and to ask about other matters of little importance. 
Kichelieu having convinced her that he knew more than this, 
she ordered her maid of honor, Madame de Senece, Chavigny, 
and de Noyers, who were present, to withdraw, and, being left 
alone with the cardinal, ujDon the assurance that he would 
obtain a full and unconditional pardon from the king if she 
confessed the truth, she acknowledged all, exhibiting extreme 
confusion in respect to her false oaths. During this humili- 
ating confession, calling to her aid the graces and arts of her 
sex, and concealing her real feelings beneath feigned demon- 
strations, she repeatedly exclaimed, " What goodness you must 
possess, M. le Cardinal ! " Then, protesting an eternal grati- 
tude, she said to him, " Give me your hand," at the same time 
presenting her own as a pledge of her sincerity ; but the car- 



UNDER EICIIELIEU AND MAZARIN. 39 

dinal respectfully refused it, drawing back instead of approach- 
ing her.^ The Abbess of Val de Grrace followed the ex- 
ample of the queen ; after having denied all, she confessed 
every thing. The king and Richelieu pardoned them, but 
forced the queen to sign a sort of schedule of conduct to which 
she should scrupulously conform. They provisionally inter- 
dicted her entrance to the Yal de Grace, as well as to every 
other convent, until the king should again give her permission 
to visit them ; they forbade her to write except in the pres- 
ence of her first maid of honor and first waiting maid, who 
should render an account of it to the king ; or to address a 
single letter to a foreign country, by any direct or indirect 
means, under penalty of the forfeiture of the pardon which 
they had accorded her. Both the first and the last of these 
prohibitions related to the duchess. The king ordered his 
wife never to write to Madame de Chevreuse, " because this 
pretext," said he, " has been the cover of all the letters which 
the queen has written beside." He also commanded her 
neither to see Craft, an English gentleman and a friend of 
Montagu and the duchess, who was strongly suspected of being 
mixed up in all their intrigues, nor " any of the other agents 
of Madame de Chevreuse." We see, then, that it is always 
Madame de Chevreuse whom Louis XIII. and Kichelieu re- 
gard as the root of all evil, and that they do not believe them- 
selves sure of the queen until after having first separated her 
from her dangerous friend. 

But how must this be done ? Should they leave her at 
Tours ? or arrest her ? or banish her from France ? It is 
curious to see what were the deliberations of the cardinal on 
this question, both with himself and with the king. He in- 
voluntarily renders striking homage to the power of Madame 
de Chevreuse by proving by a series of reasons, somewnat 
scholastically deducted after his usual manner, that the worst 

' Memoires of Richeheu, vol. x., p. 201. 



40 SECKET HISTORY OF THE EEEXCH COURT 

course of all would be to suffer her to quit France. " This 
spirit is so dangerous, that, heing abroad, she may bring affairs 
into T.ew disorder which it is impossible to foresee. It is 
she, who, having absolute disposal of the Duke of Lorraine, has 
per,:uaded hi:n to give an asjlam in his territory to Monsieur, 
the Duke of Orleans ; and it is also she who has urged on 
Engiaiid to war; if she is thrust from the kingdom, she will 
hinder the Duke of Lorraine from coming to terms ; she will 
■rsc'te the English towards the point to which she wishes to 
carry t'lem ; hhe will agitate new schemes in favor of the 
Chevalier de Jars and Chateauneuf ; she will stir up a thou- 
sand troubles within and without ; " ^ and the cardinal eon- 
eluded to retain her in France. 

For this there were two courses open, violence and gentle- 
ness. The cardinal showed many objections to violence, 
which would certainly be followed by importunate solicitations 
on the part of all the family of Madame de Chevreuse, to- 
gether with all the powers of Eurbpe, which it would be diffi- 
cult long to resist. He proposed, therefore, to win her over 
by kindness, and to treat her as they had treated the queeb, 
but on condition that she should be as frank as Anne had 
been, and should answer all the questions that might be ad- 
dressed to her; but, knowing Madame de Chevreuse, he 
must have foreseen that she would make no confession, and he 
forgets to tell us what he should then have done. They had 
pardoned the humbled and repentant queen, but what course 
would they have pursued with the proud and artful duchess, 
persisting in an absolute denial ? Satisfied with having 
separated her from Anne of Austria, would Richelieu have 
left her free and tranquil in Touraine ? Is he really sincere 
when he affirms it, or is the old charm still acting, and is this 
iron heart, this inexorable soul, which beauty, however, more 
than once found impressible, unable to shield itself from a re- 

^Memoires, p. 224, etc. 



tnSTDEE EICHELIEU AND MAZAKIN. 41 

luctant tenderness for a woman who joined in her person in 
the highest degree, those two gifts so rarely found united — 
beauty and courage ? 

He spoke to her as if he were still her friend ; he remind- 
ed her of the leniency which he had shown her in the affair 
of Chateauneuf ; and, knowing her to be at that time almost 
destitute, he sent her money. The duchess made much 
ceremony about receiving it ; she would not take it as a gift, 
but as a loan ; and the only favor which she asked of the car- 
dinal was that of assistance in the just suit which she was pros- 
ecuting in order to separate her property from that of her 
husband — a suit which she gained some time afterward. The 
questions which were addressed to her, she answered without 
embarrassment and with her usual firmness. Unable to deny 
that she had proposed to the queen to return in disguise to 
Paris, since they had seized the letter in which the queen had 
declined the proposition, she declared that she had had no 
other desire in this than to have the honor of saluting: .her 
sovereign ; that the urgency of her affairs had also called her 
to Paris ; and that, far from thinking to animate the queen 
against the cardinal, her intention had been to employ all the 
influence which she might have possessed over her in disposing 
her favorably towards the prime minister ; and, paying 
Richelieu in his ov/n coin, she gave him back his professions 
of friendship with interest ; but, in her heart, she distrusted 
him. It was in vain that the envoys of Richelieu, the Mar- 
shal La Meilleraie, the Bishop of Auxerre, and above all the 
Abb6 du Dorat, treasurer of Sainte-Chapelle, with whom she 
was on friendly terms, said every thing that they could im- 
agine to persuade her of the sincerity of the cardinal ; she only 
saw in this assiduous friendliness a skilful plan designed to 
lull her vigilance, and to inspire her with a false security. She 
thought of her friends, the Chevalier de Jars and Chateau- 
neuf, both languishing in the dungeons of Richelieu, and re- 
solved to brave all dangers rather than share their fate. 



42 SECEET HISTORY OF THE FEENCH COUET 

In the mean time, Anne of Austria had early felt the need, 
for her own safety, of acquainting Madame de Chevreuse with 
all that had passed ; and, havicg promised to hold no inter- 
course with her, she charged La Rochefoucauld, who was going 
to Poitou, to tell her what she dared not write to her herself. 
La Rochefoucauld had just made the same promise to his 
father and Chavigny, a confidant of the cardinal, and he who 
pretends that he would gladly have carried off the queen and 
Madame de Hautefort, paused with admirable scrupulousness 
before the pledge he had just given, and begged Craft, the 
English gentleman who was so much suspected by the king 
and by Richelieu, to execute the queen's commission. On 
her part, Madame de Hautefort had despatched one of her rel- 
atives, M. de Montalais, to Tours, when affairs were at their 
crisis, to inform Madame de Chevreuse of the real state of 
things, and to tell her that she would send her a prayer-book 
bound in green if affairs took a favorable turn, while a prayer- 
book bound in red should be a token that she must hasten to 
provide for her safety. A fatal contempt of the sign agreed 
on, together with a proft)und distrust of the designs of Riche- 
lieu and the king, hurried Madame de Chevreuse into a des- 
perate resolve. She chose rather to condemn herself to a new 
exile than to run the risk of falling into the hands of her ene- 
mies, and fled from Touraine, determiaing to reach Spain by 
journeying through the whole of the South of France. 

Her sole confidant was her old admirer, the Archbishop of 
Tours. As he was from Beam and had relatives on the 
frontier, he gave her letters of introduction with all necessary 
information respecting the different roads which she should 
take. But in her haste to fly, she forgot them all, and set out 
on the 6th of September, 1637,^ in a carriage, as if to take an 

^ Extract from the Information faite par le president Vignier de 
la sortie faite par Madame de Chevreuse hors de France^ with various cor- 
roborative papers. Bibliotheque Nationale, Coll. Du Puy^ Noa. 499 
500, and 501, collected in a single volume. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 43 

airing; then, at nine in the evening, she mounted on horse- 
back disguised as a man, and, when five or six leagues from 
home, found herself without letters, without itinerary, without 
waiting-maid, and followed only by two servants. She was un- 
able to change her horse during the night, and she arrived the 
next morning at Ruffec, one league from Verteuil, where La 
Kochefoucauld resided, without having taken a single hour of 
repose. Instead of claiming his hospitality, she wrote him the 
following note : " Sir, I am a French gentleman who asks your 
aid to preserve his liberty, and perhaps his life. I have fought 
an unhappy duel, and have killed a nobleman of distinction. 
This forces me to leave France in haste, as I am pursued. I 
believe you to be generous enough to serve me without know- 
ing me. I need a carriage and a valet to attend me." La 
Bochefouoauld sent her what she wished. The carriage was 
a great relief to her, for she was worn out with fatigue. Her 
new guide conducted her to another house of Kochefoucauld, 
where she arrived at midnight ; there she left the carriage and 
the two domestics who had hitherto accompanied her, and again 
set out on horseback towards the frontier of Spain. The sad- 
dle of her horse was covered with blood ; this she said was 
from a sword thrust she had received in the thigh. She slept 
in a barn on the hay, and scarcely tasted food. But as beauti- 
ful and as fascinating in the black costume of a cavalier as in 
the brilliant attire of a court lady, her gallant mien won the 
admiration of all the women, and during this adventurous 
journey, she made, despite herself, as many conquests as when 
in the halls of the Louvre, and, according to La Rochefoucauld, 
" she showed more modesty and more cruelty than men like her 
usually possess." ^ At one time she met ten or twelve cava- 



^ La Kochefoucauld, p. 356. Tallemant, Yol. i., p. 250, relates the 
strangest imaginable anecdotes, but we shall only cite certain and au- 
thentic facts. Extrait de V information^ etc. : A citizen's wife passed by 
chance, and seeing her lying on the hay, exclaimed : " This is the hand- 



44 SECRET HISTOKY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

liers commanded by the Marquis D' An tin, and was obliged to 
turn aside from her route to avoid being recognized by them. 
Another time, in a valley of the Pyrenees, a gentleman who 
had seen her in Paris, told her that he should take her for 
Madame de Chevreuse if she were dressed in a different man- 
ner, but the fair unknown extricated herself from this dijficulty 
by replying that, being a relative of that lady, she might 
well resemble her. Her courage and gayety did not abandon 
her for a moment, and, to portray the valiant Amazon, a song 
was made in which she says to her squire : 

La Boissiere, dis-moi 

Vais-je pas bieii en homme ? 
Vous chevauchez, ma foi, 

Mieux que tant que nous sommes, etc.* 

Her attendant urging her to acquaint him with her name, she 
told him in a mysterious manner that she was the Duke D'Eng- 
hien, who was forced by especial business in the service of the 
king to quit France in this manner ; which may give us an idea 
of her appearance on horseback, as well as of her resolute and 
decided air. Afterwards, gaining confidence in her guide, and 
disliking long to wear a mask, she confessed to him that she 
was the Duchess de Chevreuse. She only reached Spain 
after enduring unheard-of fatigue, and passing through a thou- 
sand perils.' Just before crossing the frontier, she wrote to 
the gentleman who had fancied that he recognized her in the 
Pyrenees, and who had shown her every attention and civility, 
that he had not been mistaken, but that she was really the 
lady whom he had believed her to be, and that, " having found 

somest youth I ever saw ! Sir, come rest in my house, you excite my 
pity," etc. 

* Tallemant, ibid. 

' Exfrait de Vinformation: Malbasty told her that she would los« 
her way, that she would meet a host of robbers, that she had but a sin- 
gle man with her, and that he feared some one would harm her. She 
offered a lar^e rouleau of pistoles to the said Malbasty. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 45 

him unusually courteous, she took the liberty of entreating 
him to procure her stuffs to clothe herself conformably to her 
sex and condition.* Having at last reached Spain, with her 
accustomed resolution she threw herself for a second time into 
the hardships of exile, taking nothing with her but her beauty, 
her talent, and her courage. She had sent one of her servants 
to La Rochefoucauld with all her jewels — valued at 200,000 
crowns — entreating him to accept them as a legacy if she 
should die, or else to restore them to her at some future day. 

At the news of the flight of Madame de Chevreuse, Riche- 
lieu was greatly disturbed, and he used every effort to hinder 
her departure from France. The strictest orders were instantly 
issued, not to arrest, but to detain her. M. de Chevreuse sent 
his steward, M, de Boispille in search of his wife with the as- 
surance that she had nothing to fear. The cardinal also de- 
spatched President Vignier, one of his trusty friends, with a full 
permission to reside in perfect liberty at Tours, together with 
the hope of a speedy return to Dampierre. At the same time, 
Vignier was ordered to question the old archbishop as well 
as La Rochefoucauld and his people, and to extract from them 
all the information that could be of use to the minister.^ But 
neither Boispille nor Yignier could oYertake the beautiful fugi- 
tive, and she had just touched the soil of Spain when the presi- 
dent reached the frontier. He wished, however, to execute his 
commission as fully as he could, and sent a herald on the 
Spanish territory to convey to Madame de Chevreuse a pardon 
for the past and an invitation to return to France. She did not 
learn of all these proceedings until she was already in Madrid. 

* La Rochefoucauld, Ilemoires, ibid. 

' These are the documents which Du Puy has collected or rather 
abridged, and of which we have availed ourselves to verify our narrative, 
using also the account of Richelieu and that of La Rochefoucauld. It 
was on this occasion that La Rochefoucauld was thrown for eight days into 
the Bastille. See his Memoires^ together with La Jeunesse de Mme. de 
Longueville, third edition, chap, iv., p. 279, etc. 



48 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FKENCH COUKT 



CHAPTEE II 

1637-1643. 

Madame de Chevreuse in Spain, and in England. — ^Long negotiation with Eichelien tc 
return to France. — Failure of the negotiation. — Marie de Modicis and the Duke 
d'^pernon. — Madame de Chevreuse in Flanders. — Conspiracy and rebellion of 
Count de Soissons. — AflFair of Cinq-Mars. — Death of Eichelieu and of Louis XIII.— 
Eoyal declaration of the 20th of April, 1643, condemning Madame de Chevreuse 
to a perpetual exile, — Her recall by the new regent. • 

"We can easily imagine the reception whicli the King of 
Spain gave the intrepid friend of his royal sister. He sent 
several carriages-and-six to meet her, and at Madrid he over- 
whelmed her with every mark of honor. Madame de Chev- 
reuse was then thirty-seven years of age. To her many 
attractions she added the prestige of the romantic adventures 
which she had just passed through, and it is said that Philip IV. 
swelled the list of her conquests.^ She was already thoroughly 
English, and thoroughly Lorraine ; she soon became Spanish 
also. She leao-ued herself with the Count-Duke Olivares, and 
gained a powerful ascendency over the councils of the cabinet 
at Madrid. This she doubtless owed to her talent and bril- 
liancy, and still more to the noble pride which she displayed 
in refusing the pensions and money that were offered her, and 
in always speaking of France in a manner befitting the former 
Constabless de Luynes.'^ 

* Madame de Motteville, vol. i., p. 93. 

^ BiBLiOTHKQUE Nationale, Manuscvits de Colbert^ affaires de France^ 
in folio. Vol, ii., fol, 9. Memoire de ce que Madame de Chevreuse a 
donne charge ait sieur de Boispille de dire a monseigneur le cardinal. 
*' She incurred no obligations in Spain, and would not accept a tester 



TJifDER EICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 47 

Notwitl] standing, whatever pleasure the declared favor of 
the king, the queen, and the prime minister may have given 
her in Spain, she did not remain long there. The war between 
the two countries rendered her position very delicate, her let- 
ters penetrated with difficulty into France, and her friends 
dared not write to her, so much did they dread the police of 
Richelieu, and so much did they fear being accused of corre- 
sponding with the enemy, and with Madame de Chevreuse. Even 
Boispille, her steward, on receiving a letter from her, said to 
the messenger, who asked for an answer : " We make no answers 
to Spain." Tc Lave more liberty, and to be nearer France, 
she resolved to go to a neutral and even friendly country, and 
in the commencement of the year 1638, she arrived in Eng- 
land. 

Madame de Chevreuse was received and treated in London 
as she had been before in Madrid. She found there her earli- 
est admirer, Count Holland, Lord Montagu, who was still 
enamoured with her. Craft,' and many other noblemen, both 
English and French, who hastened to swell her train. She 
especially charmed the king and queen. She had always 
been a favorite with -Charles L, and Henriette, on again be- 
holding the chaperon who had escorted her to her royal 
husband, embraced her, and invited her to be seated in her 
presence, an unusual mark of distinction in the court of Eng- 
land. 

The king and queen wrote in her behalf to Louis XIIL, to 
Queen Anne, and to Cardinal de Richelieu. Madame de 
Chevreuse demanded the full and entire enjoyment of her 
property, which had once been granted her, and then with- 
drawn after her flight to Spain. In the spring of 1688, the 

with the exception of good cheer and treatment She spoke as 

befitted her in Spain, and beheved that this was one thing that made the 
count-dulce esteem her." 

^ Memoirs oi Richelieu, vol. x., p. 488. 



48 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

pregnancy of Queen Anne becoming public, filled the French 
court with joy, and inspired every heart v^ith hope. Madame 
de Chevreuse profited by this event to address the folio win o- 
letter to the queen, which she could show without hesitation to 
Louis XIII., but which, notwithstanding its reserve and diplo- 
matic circumspection, discloses the warm and reciprocal affec- 
tion of the queen and the exile :* 

" To the queen, my sovereign lady : 

" Madame, I should be unworthy of pardon if I had been 
able to render an account to your Majesty of the journey which 
my misfortunes obliged me to undertake, and had failed to do 
so. But necessity having constrained me to enter Spain, where 
respect for your Majesty caused me to be received and treated 
better than I merited, the duty which I owed you compelled 
me to keep silent until I should be in a kingdom whose alli- 
ance with France would not give me cause to apprehend that 
you would be displeased at receiving letters from it. This one 
will speak first of all of the great joy which I feel at the preg- 
nancy of your Majesty. May God console and reward all who 
belong to her'' by this happiness, which I entreat him with all 
my heart to complete by the happy accouchement of a dauphin. 
Although my unhappy fortune hinders me from being among 
the first to witness it, believe that my devotion to the service 
of your Majesty will not let me be among the last to rejoice at 
it. The memory which your Majesty doubtless retains of 
what I owe to her, and my own remembrance of what I wish 
to render to her, is sufiicient to convince her of the grief 
it has been to me to see myself obliged to quit her, in order to 
escape the troubles into which I feared that unjust suspicions 



^ Manuscrits de Colbert, ibid. 

^ It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that, in all French letters 
addressed to sovereigns, the feminine pronoun her is used instead of the 
pronoun you, of course referring to your Majesty^ — Tr. 



irNDER mCHELIEU AND MAZAEIX. 49 

might plunge me. It has been necessary for me to deprive 
myself of the consolation of assuaging my sDrrows by telling 
them to your Majesty, until the present hour, when I can com- 
plain to her of my unhappy fortune, hoping that her protection 
will shelter me from the anger of the king and the dislike of 
the cardinal. I dare not say this to his Majesty myself, and 
do not tell it to M. the cardinal, being assured that your gen- 
erosity will do so, and thus make that agreeable which in me 
would be importunate. The knowledge of the kindness of 
your Majesty assures me that she will willingly exercise it on 
this occasion, and that she will employ her charity to prove to 
me what I already know, that she is still herself. Your Maj- 
esty will learn from the letters of the King and Queen of Great 
Britain the honor they do me. I do not know how better to 
express myself than by telling your Majesty that it merits her 
acknowledgment. I trust that she will approve of my resi- 
dence in their court, that this will not render me deserving of 
any harsh treatment, and that I shall not be refused the prop- 
erty which the authority of your Majesty and the care of M. 
the cardinal had procured me before my departure, and which 
I demand of my husband. In which I supplicate your Majesty 
to protect me, so that I may soon be in possession of the just 
rights for which I am hoping." 

At the same time that she claimed her property, Madame 
de Chevreuse thought of acquitting a debt which weighed 
heavily on her pride. At Tours she had really been forced 
to accept the money sent her by Richelieu, but, as we have 
already said,' she accepted it simply as a loan ; and under 
cover of the official letter to Queen Anne, which we have just 
given, she enclosed a little confidential note, designed for the 
queen alone, from which we see that the Queen of France had 
herself formerly borrowed money from her ex-superintendent. 

* Manuso'its de Colbert, ibid. 



50 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

The note, in fact, besonglit her to pay the cardinal -what was 
due to him, and, if she could, *' to settle the balance of the debt." 
These last words, with many others in subsequent letters, 
show us that since her departure from France, Madame de 
Chevreuse, being unwilliog to receive any thing from a foreign 
power, had exhausted all her resources, and that, not having 
the disposal of her property, she had been compelled to con- 
tract debts in London, which were constantly increasing, and 
which she knew not how to satisfy. Meanwhile, M. de Chev- 
reuse, who had reduced his affairs to the most deplorable state, 
and whose sole hope of retrieving them lay in his wife's good 
sense and influence, had been continually interceding with the 
king and prime minister to permit her to return to France. The 
cardinal renewed his offer of pardon and abolition, which, he 
said, President Vignier had already taken the trouble to carry 
to her to the frontiers of Spain. Besides the general reasons 
for wishing her return which he himself has adduced, he had 
a very particular one just at this moment : he v/as negotiating 
with the Duke of Lorraine, whose military talents and small 
but excellent army disquieted him not a little, and he was 
more than ever anxious to draw him into a peace which would 
leave him free to unite all the forces of France against Spain 
and Austria. He had the greatest interest, therefore, in gain- 
ing the friendship of Madame de Chevreuse, whose influence 
was all-powerful over the mind of the duke, and who, as he 
was firmly persuaded, had already foiled the desired arrange- 
ment in 1637, and had it in her power to prevent it again. 
On her part, Madame de Chevreuse was weary of exile; she 
sighed for her chateau of Dampierre,^ and for her children, 

^ One can well imagine it, on seeing this beautiful residence, still 
decorated by a cultivated and refined taste. The descendant of Marie 
de Rohan, the Constabless de Luynes, has converted the ancient Chateau 
de Guise into a tasteful and splendid residence, which rivals the most 
celebrated palaces of the English aristocracy. Where else can we find 



UNDEE RICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 51 

especially her daughter, the amiable Charlotte, who was grow- 
ing up far from her mother. She shuddered at the thought 
of the painful alternative which each day pressed her more 
strongly : either of being forced to have recourse to England 
and Spain, or to pledge the jewels that she had reclaimed from 
La Kochefoucauld.^ She clung to this rich parure, which is 
said to have come from Florence, from Marshal D'Ancre^ as 
the brilliant souvenir of happier days ; for Madame de Chev- 
reuse was a woman with the weaknesses as well as the charms 
of her sex, and when passion and honor did not thrust her in 
the midst of perils, she delighted in all the elegancies of life.'* 
It was this mixture of womanly gentleness with masculine 
energy that formed the most striking trait of her character, 
and that rendered her fit for every position, as well for the 
endearments and confidence of love as for the excitement of 

such grandeur and simplicity, such exquisite appreciation of Nature and 
of Art, as is shown in these beautiful fountains, these magnificent prom- 
enades, and this vast library, these admirable family portraits, these 
paintings, or, rather, splendid sketches of M. Ingres, and this statue in 
massive silver of Louis XIII., the token of a generous gratitude ? And 
when we reflect that he who has collected all these beautiful things, has 
devoted his fortune to the public good in every way, that he has given 
us the steel of Damascus, the ruins of Selinonte, the history of the house 
of Anjou a Naples, and the Minerva of the Parthenon ; that, during thirty 
years, he has planted asylums, schools, and hospitals everywhere about him, 
and encouraged and sustained scholars and artists, being himself one of 
the first connoisseurs and archaeologists of Europe, the friend of a ju- 
dicious liberty, and favorable to every good, popular cause, we may 
exclaim. There is one great nobleman, then, still in France ! 

^ See, in respect to this. La Jeunesse de Madame de Longueville, third 
edition, chap, iv., p. 280. 

^ Madame de Chevreuse, like her grandson, loved the arts and en- 
couraged them. She was the patroness of the excellent engraver, Pierre 
Daret, who dedicated to her his collection of the '■'■ lllustres Franqais et 
estrangers de Pun et de P autre seice," in quarto, 1654. This dedication 
acquaints us with facts that are not to be found in any of the biographies 
of this artist. 



52 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FEEA^CH COURT 

intrigue and adventure. It was under the influence of these 
varied feelings that she decided to resume a negotiation with 
Richelieu that had never wholly been broken off, and the suc- 
cessful termination of which appeared easy enough, since both 
parties equally wished for it. 

This negotiation lasted for more than a year. The cardi- 
nal authorized Boispille, the steward of the family de Chev 
reuse, and Abbe du Dorat, to repair to England, the better 
to conduct this delicate affair. They bestowed much time 
and pains on it; more than once were they obliged to go from 
London to Paris, and from Paris to London, to smooth down 
the difficulties that were constantly arising. The oft-broken 
thread was knotted anew, but only to be again broken. The 
cardinal and the duchess sincerely desired to effect a recon- 
ciliation, but knowing each other well, each wished to exact 
from the other almost impossible pledges of fidelity. On 
studying the various documents to which this long nego- 
tiation gave rise,^ we recognize therein the genius and 
characteristics of Richelieu and of Madame de Chevreuse; 
the habitual artifice of the cardinal with his ill-dissembled 
firmness ; and the suppleness of the beautiful duchess, her ap- 
parent submission, and her inflexible precautions. Richelieu 
gradually relaxed his habitual rigor, but his claims — always 
visible through the most studied courtesy-=^warned Madame 
de Chevreuse to be on her guard, and to make no mistakes 
with a man who forgot nothing, and who was powerful enough 
for every thing. It is a curious spectacle to see them em- 
ploying all the manoeuvres of the most refined diplomacy, and 



^ In the Bihliotheque Nationale are two manuscripts which contain 
it entire : one, which the P^re Griffet knew and profited by, is volume ii. 
of the Manuscrits de Colbert, affaires de France ; these are but copies, 
and are often defective. The other. Supplement Frangais, No. 4067, 
contains fewer documents, but original ones, among which are several 
autograph letters of Richelieu and of Madame de Chevreuse, 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND ilAZAEIN. 53 

exhausting the resources of a consummate ability for more 
than a year, in order to persuade and attract each other 
towards the common end which both desired, without succeed- 
ing in it, and without being able to cure themselves of their 
mutual and incurable suspicions. Let us look at the principal 
features — the beginning, the progress, the details, and the 
inevitable end of this singular correspondence. 

It is opened on the 1st of June, 1638, by a letter from 
Madame de Ghevreuse. The duchess thanks the cardinal for 
the friendly assurances which have been given her in his behalf; 
she confesses to him that, when, in the preceding year, she re- 
solved to quit France, it was from apprehension of the sus- 
picions which he seemed to entertain of her, and that she 
wished to leave to time the task of dissipating them. " I 
hope," she says, " that the evil fortune which constrained me 
to flee from France is weary of pursuing me. . . I should be 
very glad to be entirely cured of my fears by the discovery 
that my enemies are not more powerful than my innocence."* 
This letter, while feigning frankness and confidence, is exceed- 
ingly artful and reserved. Madame de Ghevreuse carefully 
guards against engaging in any discussion upon the past, 
though she slightly refers to it in order to sound Kichelieu, 
not wishing to expose herself to an investigation concerning 
her previous conduct on her return to France ; she is there- 
fore careful to use the word innocence adroitly, yet without 
protestation. The part Madame de Ghevreuse meant to play 
may be understood from this first letter — it consisted in quiet- 
ly procuring a pledge of her safety. To cease from declar- 
ing her innocence would have been to deliver herself into the 
hands of Richelieu, who, at the first feigned or real symptom 
of discontent, could arm himself with her confessions and crush 
her. The answer of the cardinal also discloses, and, as we 
think, a little too clearly, his secret thought ; like his usual 

^ Manuscripts of Colbert, ibid. 



54 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

policy, it is both captious and imperious. In the midst of 
somewhat affected demonstrations of politeness, he says to her, 
" That which you send me is couched in such terms that, be- 
ing unable to consent to it without acting against your inter- 
ests, I will make no reply to it for fear of displeasing you 
while wishing to serve you. In a word, madame, if you are 
innocent, your safety depends upon yourself, and if the frailty 
of human nature, to say nothing of that of your sex, has made 
you remiss in any thiog of which his majesty may have reason 
to complain, you will find in his goodness all that you can ex- 
pect from it." Madame de Chevreuse readily comprehended 
the artifice of the cardinal ; but that she might leave no room 
for any equivocation, she addressed him a memorial in which 
she gave an account of all her actions, and of the reasons 
which had determined her to quit France. She had fled be- 
cause, while lavishing fair words on her, they had endeavored 
to make her confess that she had written to the Duke of Lor- 
raine in order to prevent him from breaking with Spain and 
entering into an arrangement with France, and being unable 
to confess a fault which she had never committed, and seeing 
that they were persuaded of it and that they even alleged in- 
tercepted letters, she had chosen to quit her country rather 
than remain suspected and in perpetual danger. Richelieu 
hastened to reassure her, but on the contrary he alarmed her, 
by seeming to be convinced of that which she was fully de- 
termined never to avow. Was it a judicious method of in- 
spirino- her with confidence to remind her of the afi"air of 
Chateauneuf, and plainly to intimate that he had proofs of it 
in his hands which would dispense with any avowal on her 
part ? " When M. de Boispille went to seek you, I told hi.n 
wherein I thought your interest and your safety lay : namely, 
in keeping nothing secret. I think you should the more read- 
ily assent to this, as experience has shown you by what passed 
in the affair of M. de Chateauneuf that, in whatever interests 
you, your friends are the most secret when tboy have the 



UNDEE EICHELIEtJ AND MAZAKIN. 55 

proofs in their hands. It is so difficult to induce you to con- 
fess these, where one is not sure, that when he is sure, he would 
almost prefer to be in ignorance, that he may not be obliged to 
insist upon confession." 

Can we wonder after this that Madame de Chevreuse drew 
back^ or that she was at least much embarrassed ? She wrote 
to the cardinal on the 8th of September to express to him her 
gratitude for the kindness he had shown her and, at the same 
time, the trouble which she felt at his settled conviction that 
she was really guilt}^ Her letter admirably depicts her per- 
plexities. 

" Consider the state in which I am ; well-satisfied on one 
hand with the assurances which you give me of the continua- 
tion of your friendship, and deeply grieved on the other by 
your suspicion, or rather by your alleged certainty, of a fault 
which I never committed, and which, I confess, would be at- 
tended with another if, having committed it, I should deny it 
after the pardon of the king, which you would procure me upon 
confession. I confess that this so embarrasses me that I see 
no rest fOr myself in this position. If you were not so cer- 
tainly persuaded of knowing my fault, or if I could possibly 
confess it, there would be means of accommodation; but as 
you suffer yourself to be carried away by so strong a belief 
against me as to admit of no justification, and as I am unable 
to make myself guilty without being so, I have recourse to 
yourself, supplicating you in the character of friend which 
your generosity promises me, to propose an expedient whereby 
to satisfy his majesty and secure- my safe return to France, 
being unable myself to conceive of any, and finding myself in 
the greatest perplexity." 

Now see the expedient which Kichelieu devised to free 
Madame de Chevreuse from the anxiety that tormented her. 
He sent her a royal declaration by which she was authorized 

^ Manuscrits de Colbert^ letter of July 24, 1638. 



56 SECEET HISTORY OP THE FRENCH COURT 

to return to France with a full pardon for her past conduct, 
especially for her negotiations with the Duke of Lorraine 
against the interests of tiie king. On receiving this unhoped- 
for favor, Madame de Chevreuse protested against the pardon 
of a crime which she would not acknowledge at any price; 
only confessing herself culpable in respect to her precipitate 
flight from the kingdom. The means taken to dissipate her 
suspicions only increased them ; she set about examining all 
the terms of this declaration with a zealous care, and she soon 
found ambiguity enough in that which related to her return to 
Dampierre. It was not said explicitly that she might remain 
there at full liberty. The only prohibitions to which she would 
consent were those of never seeing the queen, and of holding 
no foreign correspondence. Aside from these, she demanded 
a full liberty ; — above all, she demanded that under a pretence 
of pardon she should not be charged with a fault which she 
pretended never to have committed. 

On the 23d of February, 1639, she refused therefore the 
indemnity which had been sent her, and demanded an explana- 
tion of the manner in which she would be permitted to reside 
in France. The caidinal, irritated at seeing all his schemes 
discovered and eluded, flew into a passion, and disclosed the 
drift of his designs in a letter to the Abbe du Dorat, dated 
March 14th, in which he complained that Madame de Chevreuse 
would not acknowledge her negotiations with foreign powers, 
" as if, " said he, " any one ever saw a sick man cured of a 
disease which he would not allow that he had. " He did not 
intend to permit Madame de Chevreuse to remain longer than 
eight or ten days at Dampierre, after which she must retire to 
some one of her estates at a distance from Paris. He con- 
sented, however, to modify the royal indemnity which had so 
much displeased Madame de Chevreuse, and sent her another 
which was a little more lenient as a proof of his condescension 
and of the goodness of the king. 

This new declaration was still very far from being what 



UNDEK EICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 57 

Madame de Chevreuse desired ; she was not only absolved in 
it from her flight from France, but " from the other faults and 
crimes which she might have committed against the fidelity 
•which she owed to the king ; " and Richelieu thus evasively 
returned to his original purpose of imposing upon the unhappy 
exile, indirectly at least, a confession of crimes which she 
maintained that she had never committed — a confession at 
once humiliating and dangerous, and placing her wholly at his 
mercy. Yet such was the desire of the poor woman to behold 
her country and her family that, after having a second time 
vainly protested against it, she resigned herself to this doubt- 
ful grace. She did more ; Richelieu having hastened to remit 
to the Abbe du Dorat and to Boispille the money necessary 
to acquit the debts which she had contracted in Ecgland, and 
to enable her to quit that court in a stj^e befitting her rank 
and dignity, she consented to permit two intermediate agents 
to sign in her name a writing designed to satisfy Richelieu 
without too deeply compromising herself, in which she humbly 
spoke of her past misconduct in very general terms,' and 
pledged herself never to come in secret to Paris, provided she 
were allowed to live in perfect freedom at Dampierre. The 
entreaties of the Abbe du Dorat and of Boispille, and the 
solemn promise which Richelieu renewed to her in a final let- 
ter of April 13th, 1639, might well have conquered her scru- 
ples, stifled her suspicions, and caused her to yield her secret 
instincts to the solicitations of her family. 

Affairs stood in this wise ; the proud duchess had bowed 
her head beneath the weight of exile and misfortune ; she was 
about to depart ; her adieus were already made to the Queen 
of England, and a vessel was ready to conduct her to Dieppe 
where a carriage awaited her ; when suddenly, at the end of 
the month of April, she received the following letter, without 
date or signature, which we faithfully transcribe : 

*Ibid. 



58 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

" I should not be the friend to you that I am, if I failed 
to tell you that if you love Madame de Chevreuse, you 
will prevent her ruin, which is inevitable in France, where 
they only wish her for her destruction. This is not merely 
an opinion ; there is no other remedy than that of following 
this advice whereby to save Madame de Chevreuse, of whose 
connections with Spain and M. de Lorraine, th«^ cardinal has 
already spoken too ill to permit him to be silent in the fu- 
ture. In short, at this moment, there is nothing but patience 
for Madame de Chevreuse, or sure destruction to her and 
eternal regret to the writer. " 

From whatever source this note may have come, we can 
readily imagine that it troubled Madame de Chevreuse. It 
responded to all the secret instincts of her heart, and to the 
knowledge which she had had of old of the implacable resent- 
ment of the cardinal. She suspended or prolonged her pre- 
parations for departure ; and acting as frankly as prudently, 
she showed the letter which she had received to Boispille, and 
authorized him to transmit it to the cardinal. A month had 
scarcely passed, ere she received another letter of the same 
stamp, no longer anonymous, but signed by the man of all 
others the most devoted to her. 

" I am certain that it is the design of the cardinal to 
offer you every possible inducement to persuade you to 
return to France, — then immediately to destroy you. The 
Marquis de Yille, who has talked with him and with M. de 
Chavigny, can give you further explanations, having heard it 
himself. I expect him every moment, but if I thought that 
I had influence enough over your mind to persuade you 
from taking this resolution, I would hasten to throw myself 
at your feet to convince you of the certainty of your utter 
ruin, and to conjure you by all that is most dear to you to 
shun this calamity, too cruel to the whole world, but most 
of all insupportable to me; protesting that if my destruc- 
tion could procure your repose, I should esteem the occa- 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 59 

sion happy wliicli enabled me to do so; and my only 
motive in serving you is regard for your interest, being for 
ever, Madame, your most devoted servant, 

" Charles de Lorraine. 

*' CiRK, May 26, 1639." 

This new counsel heightened the anxiety of Madame de 
Chevreuse. She transmitted this second letter to Richelieu 
as she had done the first, to show him that she was not 
detained by trivial causes, and to explain to him her un- 
certainty. She also declared that she would not depart till 
she had seen and heard the Marquis de Ville whom the Duke of 
Lorraine had announced to her. 

Henri de Livron, Marquis de Yille, was a Lorraine no- 
bleman, full of wit and courage, and devoted to his country 
and his prince, who having been made prisoner, thrown 
into the Bastille, and afterwards released by Richelieu, had 
rejoined the Duke Charles in the Netherlands. Pie came 
to London in the first part of the month of August, 1639, 
and used every effort to persuade Madame de Chevreuse to 
break with the cardinal. The duchess wished that he should 
explain himself in the presence of Boispille, and that the latter 
should render an account of the interview to Richelieu. The 
Marquis de Ville continued inflexible in his assertions, and 
asked nothing better than to draw up and sign the following de- 
position : — " A person named Lange, having accompanied me 
last winter from Paris as far as Charenton, said to me that 
his knowledge of the interest which I had for the service of 
Madame de Chevreuse forced him to tell me that she was 
lost if she returned to France at present. Pressing him 
to tell me what he knew positively on the subject, after 
having first extracted a promise from mo that I would npt 
speak of it to an}^ one but his Highness of Lorraine or 
Madame de Chevreuse, he said that it was but two days since 
the cardinal, in speaking of Madame de Chevreuse to M. de 
Chavigny, showed much dissatisfaction because she per- 



CO SECRET HISTOEY OP THE FKENCH COUET 

sisted in denying that she had counselled M. de Lorraine 
not to make teems with France. At this, M. de Chavigny also 
seemed very greatly surprised, and both said that the matter 
DOW was very clear, and that Madame de Chevreuse being 
once in France, they could make her speak plain French 
with the letters they possessed; that she did not believe 
it, but if she thought to deceive them she deceived herself. 
This the deponent affirms, having heard it himself. At 
London, this eighth day of August. 

" Henri de Liveon, Marquis de Ville." 

This writing, as well as the preceding ones, was punctually 
sent to Richelieu. 

We ask whether all this should not naturally have made 
the strongest impression on the mind of Madame de Chev- 
reuse ? Could she recall without terror the obstinate endeav- 
ors of the cardinal to draw from her by direct and indirect 
means a confession which could be of little importance to him, 
if he had no intention of using it against her? Did she not 
know his imperious temper, and his passion for holding the 
whole world at his feet, and for always having wherewith to 
crush his enemies ? Whoever has felt the bitterness and mis- 
eries of exile will not be surprised that the unhappy duchess 
should have descended so far as to submit to hard and inse- 
cure conditions in her ardent desire of regaining her country 
and her home. But who can blame her upon such counsels as 
those which we have just quoted, for hesitating to take a step, 
which, should it prove a false one, would leave her nothing 
but eternal regret and useless despair. 

Ere long another counsel, which was to her an order, en- 
chained her to a foreign land. She for whom she had suffered 
every thing and braved every thing for the last ten years, her 
royal accomplice, Anne of Austria, warned her not to trust to 
appearances. The queen, meeting M. de Chevreuse one day 
at St. Germain, inquired after the duchess. He replied that 



ITNDEIl RICHELIEU AXD MAZAEIN. 61 

he had reason to complain of her majesty, who alone hindered 
his wife from returning. The queen told him that he was very 
wrong in reproaching her ;^ that she loved Madame de Chev- 
reuse and wished much to see her, but that she should never 
counsel her to return to France. It seemed to Madame de 
Chevreusethat Anne of Austria ou2;ht to be well informed ; and 
she resolved to follow advice that came from so high a quarter. 
She would not accept the money of Richelieu, and wrote to 
him for the last tinae on the 16th of September, representing 
to him her uncertainty and embarrassment, and asking time to 
calm her fears. On the same day she announced her definitive 
resolution to her husband, to Dorat, and to Boispille : " I 
ardently desire," said she to her husband, " to see myself again 
in France in a position to retrieve our fortunes, and to live 
tranquilly with you and my children, but I see so much dan- 
ger in going there, as I understand affairs, that I cannot now 
risk it, knowing that I can neither work to your advantage 
nor theirs, if I am in trouble. I must therefore patiently 
seek some safe road which will finally carry me there with that 
repose of mind which I cannot now find. ... I have hftard 
of very important charges against me, of which I am posi- 
tively innocent, — as perhaps they know at this moment.,"-and 
of which appearances indicate that they wish to accuse md, I 
cannot explain myself more clearly on this point." To the 
Abbe du Dorat, she said : " I am astonished that any one can 
accuse me of feigning imaginary apprehensions as w.) excuse 
for staying from the enjoyment of my lawful property^ instead 
of pitying me for the perplexity to which my unhappj fortune 
reduces me." To Boispille, she said : " Since yovir depart- 
ure, I have had so many new proofs of the continuance of my 
misfortunes in the suspicions which he entertains of mc, that 
it is impossible for me to resolve to return and expose myself 

* Letter of the Abb6 du Dorat to Richelieu, Manuscrits de Colbert 
fol. 47. 



62 SECKET HISTORY OF THE FEENCH COUKT 

to the consequences which may result from them. . . . Be 
lieve that I desire so ardently to return, that I would over- 
look many thiugs to do so ; but there are some that stop me 
with so much reason, that it is absolutely necessary that I 
should still remain where I am. I feel the incoDveniences of 
this exile too deeply to refrain from ending them as soon as I 
can see lisht. Meanwhile, it is better to suffer than to 
perish." * 

Thus vanished the last hopes of a sincere reconciliation be- 
tween two persons who were at the same time attracted to- 
wards and repelled from each other by insurmountable in- 
stincts; who knew each other too well not to fear each 
other, or to confide in the promises of which neither was 
sparing without exacting binding pledges which neither could 
nor would be given. At Tours, two years before, Madame do 
Chevreuse had chosen rather to take for the second time the 
road to exile than to risk her liberty ; at London, too, she 
preferred to endure the miseries of exile, and to consume the 
last days of her beauty in privation and fatigue if she might 
but remain free, with the hope of wearying fortune by the 
force of courage, and of making the author of her sufferings 
pay dearly for them. 

In the middle of the year 1639, Marie de Medicis, weary 
of the wandering life that she was leading in the Nether- 
lands at the mercy of the Spanish government, which had 
lavished promises on her in the hope of gaining her over to 
their party, and, on seeing her impotence, had then forsaken 
her, resolved to go to ask an asylum of her daughter, the 
Queen of England. Could the latter have refused this to her 
mother, aged, sick, and reduced to the last extremity ? The 
pitiless Richelieu accuses Madame de Chevreuse ^ of having 
supported and seconded the resolution of Queen Henriette. 

^ Ifanuscrits de Colbert^ fol. 53, etc. 
' Memoires, vol. x., p. 484. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 63 

« 

We should blame her if she had not done so, or if, herself 
exiled and unhappy, she had not mingled her respectful 
homage with that paid by the English Court to the widow of 
Heori lY,, the mother of Louis XIII. and of three great 
queens, who had just braved a seven days' tempest on the 
ocean, and had arrived at last, destitute, despairing, and dying 
— a sad object for universal pity. Richelieu, w^ho can see 
nothing but politics everywhere, pretends to find intrigues 
and plots in this homage as well as in the visits of Madame de 
Chevreuse to Marie de Medicis. These are probably the ac- 
cusations of which Madame de Chevreuse complains in am- 
biguous language in her last letters. She repels them, and 
with reason — she remained tranquil, and was even very cir- 
cumspect as long as she preserved the hope of a sincere recon- 
ciliation with Richelieu ; but when sure that he sought to de- 
ceive her, to lure her to France to have her in his power, 
and, in case of need, to imprison her, having broken with him, 
she considered herself bound by no scruple, and only thought 
of giving him back war for war. 

A little while after the arrival of Marie de Medicis, another 
victim of the cardinal, another exile, interesting at least for 
the incredible iniquity of the judgment rendered against him, 
came to London to seek a refuge. This was the Duke de La 
Valette, eldest son of the aged Duke d'Epernon and own 
brother of the Cardinal de La Valette, a general and confidant 
of Richelieu, whose daily counsels had often saved him from 
impostors, and whose sword had done good service for him in 
the Netherlands and in Italy. The Duke de La Yalette 
had doubtless been guilty of a great fault. When placed un- 
der the command of M. le Prince at the siege of Fontarabie, 
he had caused the failure of this important enterprise by not 
secondiog his general as he ought. He had not betrayed him, 
neither had he any understanding with the enemy, but a fatal 
jealousy of the Prince de Conde had made him fail in his 
duty. A just punishment would have satisfied the army ; 



64 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

the injustice of the trial and the excessive severity of the sen- 
tence aroused the indignation of all honorable men. Instead 
of being arraigned before the parliament in his quality of duke 
and peer, according to the laws of the time, Bernard de La 
Y alette was delivered over to a commission as the Marshal de 
Marillac had formerly been, The duke fled, perceiving that 
they only sought his life, and they adjudged him guilty of 
contumacy in an unheard-of manner/ The king assembled in 
his chamber a certain number of the members of parliament, 
the chief justice, the presidents a moriiery a few counsellors of 
State, and several picked dukes and peers ; of these he form- 
ed a sort of tribunal, placed himself at its head, presided 
himself, and, despite the generous resistance of the most of 
the members of parliament, who demanded that the affair 
should be referred to them in conformity with every ordi- 
nance, he forced these spurious judges to deUberate upon 
and to adopt the harsh conclusions of the attorney-general; 
and the Duke de La Yalette was declared criminal of leze- 
majesty, and guilty of perfidy, treason, cowardice, and dis- 
obedience. He was condemned to be decapitated, his prop- 
erty confiscated, and his lands transferred from the united 
crown to the demesne of the king. The attorney-general, 
Mathieu Mole, extricated himself with difiiculty from the 
duty of carrying this odious sentence into execution, and the 
illustrious criminal was beheaded in effigy upon the Place 
de Grtve on the 8th of June, 1639. Such a method of 
procedure in a criminal case was a subversion of all the 
laws of the kingdom. If it dismayed magistrates attached to 
the king, and certainly not factious, like the presidents 

^For this unheard-of scene, one should not only see the detailed 
and suspicious relation published bj the friends of La Valette, which is 
found among the articles printed in the sequel of the Memoiren of Mon- 
tresor, but also the Memoires of Omer Talon, collection Petitot, ii. 
series, vol. Ix., pp. 186-197. 



rXDEE EICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 65 

Lejay, Novion, Bailleul, De Mesmes, and Bellievre, is it 
surprising that it should have been revolting to the soul of 
a woman, and that Madame de Chevreuse should have en- 
treated Charles I. to receive the noble fugitive into his king- 
dom ? Mark well that the Duke de La Valette did not 
arrive in England until the end of October, 1639, when Ma- 
dame de Chevreuse had no reason longer to preserve cir- 
cumspection towards Richelieu. She interceded so earnestly 
with Charles I., that, despite the contrary opinion of the 
council of ministers, and thanks to the intervention of the 
queen, she obtained permission for the duke to reside in Lon- 
don, and even to be presented to the king, but secretly 
and private, so as not to offend France too greatly' — a vain 
precaution which did not save King Charles from the vin- 
dictive rancor of Richelieu. The cardinal, seeing that Ma- 
dame de Chevreuse's influence with the King of England pre- 
vailed over his own, and that she urged him on to aid his 
enemies, more than ever endeavored to excite domestic 
troubles about the unhappy king which would put it out of 
his power to injure France, and covertly carried on his artful 
intrigues with the Parliamentarians, and most especially with 
the Scotch Puritans.'^ On her side, Madame de Chevreuse did 
not slumber. The ancient duel with Richelieu being once re- 

^ Memoires of Richelieu, vol. ii., pp. 498 and 499. 

^ See the letter of Richelieu to the Count d'Estrade of the 2d De- 
cember, 1637; see also letters of Boispille to the cardinal of 1639, in 
which he gives the news of the slow progress of the army in Scotland 
M'ith an ill-disguised satisfaction that betrays the sentiments of the 
writer. Richelieu caused the manifesto to England, which the Scotch 
published in 1641, to be printed in the Gazette of that year, No. 34, p. 161. 
"We cannot doubt," says the exact and learned Pere GrifFet, "that 
Richelieu was one of the prime movers of the revolution which finally 
led Charles I. to the scaffold and Oliver Cromwell to the throne. M. de 
Brienne seems to assent to this, but he takes care to remark that things 
were carried much farther than the cardinal had foreseen or wished.''^ 



66 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

newed, slie formed at London, with the Duke de Yendome, La 
Vieuville, and La Valette, a faction of active and able 
exiles, who, supported bj Count Holland, then one of the 
chiefs of the royalist party and of the army of Charles I., by 
Lord Montagu, a zealous Catholic and the confidential coun- 
sellor of Queen Henriette, by the Chevalier Digby and by 
other powerful lords of the English Court, and also main- 
taining direct correspondence with the Court of Rome 
through its English envoy, Rosetti,^ as well as with the 
Cabinet of Madrid, encouraged and inflamed the hopes of the 
exiles and the malcontents, planted obstacles in the path of. 
Richelieu, and gathered dangers everywhere about him. 

In 1641, we find Madame de Chevreuse at Brussels serv- 
ing as a bond between England, Spain, and Lorraine. The 
fact is not generally known, but "we can demonstrate that she 
took an active part in the affair of the Count de Soissons ; that 
is to say, in the most formidable conspiracy that had ever been 
plotted against Richelieu. 

The Count de Soissons, prince of the blood royal, was, how- 
ever, of far more consequence than Henri de Montmorenci had 
been : he possessed his bravery and his military talents ; his plan 
was better conceived, and the occasion more favorable in every 
respect. The prime minister, by straining all the springs of 
government, by perpetuating the war, by increasing the public 
taxes, and by oppressing both public and private individuals, 
had excited much hatred, and governed only by the force of 
terror. His genius was imposing, and the grandeur of his de- 

^ When afterwards, in 1643, the pope appointed the Cardinal Ro- 
setti to represent him in the Congress at Munster, the successor of 
Richelieu unhesitatingly excluded him, founding this especially on the 
ground that, during his mission in England, Rosetti had been very in- 
timate with Madame de Chevreuse, and that she had wholly gained him. 
Letter of the queen to M. de Fontenay, September 25, 1643. Biblio- 
THi'QUE Nationale, fonds Gaignieres, vol. 510, in fol., under the title : 
Dipesches hrvportantes sur la paix cPItalie, des annees 1643 et 1644. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 67 

signs excited the admiration of a few choice spirits ; but this 
continued harshness, joined with the sacrifices that were spring- 
ing up unceasingly, wearied the greater number, and the king 
first of all. The favorite of the day, the Grrand- Equerry Cinq- 
Mars, aspersed and undermined the cardinal as much as possi- 
ble in the mind of Louis XIII. He knew of the conspiracy of 
the Count de Soissons, and favored, without taking part in it. 
They could count on him for the next day. Queen Anne, still 
in disgrace, despite the two sons which she had just given to 
France, would at least offer prayers for the end of a power 
which oppressed her. Monsieur had pledged his word — not 
very reliable, it is true ; but the Duke de Bouillon, a warrior 
and an eminent politician, had openly declared himself; and his 
fortified town of Sedan, situated on the frontiers of France and 
Belgium, was an asylum in which they could brave for a long 
time all the forces of the cardinal. They had carefully ar- 
ranged an extensive correspondence with every part of the 
kingdom, as well as with the clergy and the parliament. They 
even conspired in the Bastille, where the Marshal de Yitry 
and the Count de Cramail, prisoners as they were, had pre- 
pared a surprise with admirably guarded secrecy. Tha Abbe 
de Betz, then twenty-five years of age, preluded his adventur- 
ous career by this essay at civil war.^ The Duke de Guise, 
who had escaped from the Archbishop of Bheims and taken 
shelter in the Netherlands, had promised to come to Sedan to 
share in the perils of the conspirators. But the greatest, the 

^ See the whole account of this affair in the first volume of the Jfe- 
moires, p. 28-41. The author of the Conjuration c?e i^zesg-we attributes to 
himself on this occasion, some political discourses imitated from Sallust, in 
which maxims of state abound, according to that masculine style of the 
times of which Eichelieu was the author and Corneille the interpreter. 
The discourses might have been added afterwards to give the reader an 
exalted idea of the precocious genius of Retz, but they are truthful, al- 
ways excepting the usual charge, and accord perfectly with the most 
authentic documents. 



68 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

most solid hope of the Count de Soissons, rested on Spain ; she 
alone could enable him to depart from Sedan, to march against 
Paris, and to break the power of Richelieu ; he therefore de- 
spatched one of the bravest and most intelligent of his followers 
to Brussels,* to negotiate with the Spanish ministers, and to 
obtain from them money and troops. This gentleman was 
named Alexandre de Campion. He met Madame de Chevreuse 
at Brussels, and confided to her the mission with which he was 
charged. She eagerly hastened to second it with all her influ- 
ence. As we shall see this personage reappear more than once 
in the midst of the most tragic adventures in the life of Madame 
de Chevreuse, we must pause for a few moments to introduce 
him to our readers. 

Indeed, he has taken care to draw his own portrait in a 
work entitled Becueil de Leitres qui jpeuvent servir a Vhis- 
toire, ei divers Poesies, a Bouen, aux depens de Fauteur, 1657. 
This work, designed but for a few persons and very little no- 
ticed at the time, and as little known since as thouo-h it had 
never existed, is, nevertheless, as the title asserts, very valuable 
to history. It is dedicated to the celebrated Gillonne d'Har- 
court, Countess de Fiesque, one of the aides-de-camp of Ma- 
demoiselle during the war of the Fronde, a witty, intriguing, and 
brilliant woman. The book is pleasing. Alexandre de Cam- 
pion there shows himself full of pretensions to wit and gal- 
lantry ; he carefully collects all the little verses which he 
addressed in his youth to the belles of the time, and gives, 
without ceremony, the letters which he had formerly written 
under the most delicate circumstances, to the Count de Soissons, 

^ We read in the Gazette of Renaudot, for the year 1641, No. 61, p. 
814: "The twentieth of this month of May, the Duke de Guise arrived 
at Brussels from Sedan, where he supped with the Duchess de Chevreuse 
and lodged at the house of Don Antonio Sarmiento." And in No. 64, p. 
327, under the date of May 28 : " The Secretary of the Duke de Bouillon 
has left here (Brussels) for Sedan, where the Duke de Guise has also 
returned." 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 69 

the Duke de Vendome, the Duke de Beaufort, the Count de 
Beaupuis, De Thou, the Dake de Bouillon, the Duke de 
Guise, Madame de Montbazon, and Madame de Chevreuse. 
We see in these letters that Alexandre de Campion, born in 
1610, of a noble family of Normandy, in 1634 entered, at the 
age of twenty-four, into the service of the young Count de 
Soissons in the quality of gentleman, followed him in his differ- 
ent campaigns, distinguished himself therein, and gradually 
shared his confidence with Beauregard, Saint Ibar, and Vari- 
carville — brave officers and men of honor, but restless and 
somewhat turbulent, who flattered the ambition of their master 
and urged him on in concert to play a conspicuous role in 
France by overthrowing the Cardinal de Bichelieu. Campion 
informs us that, in the year 1636, the Count de Soissons be- 
gan to meditate on what he afterwards executed, that he had 
a perfect understanding with the Duke de Bouillon, and that 
both exerted themselves to draw the Duke d'Orleans to Sedan, 
in order to raise there the standard of revolt, and constrain 
the king to sacrifice his minister. Campion went to Blais in 
order to secure the Duke d'Orleans and to point out to him 
the surest means of repairing to Sedan. At the same time, he 
was negotiating with Bichelieu through Father Joseph. The 
close of the year 1636 and the whole of the year 1637 
passed in these intrigues, which failed at last through the fear 
of trusting the conspirators to embark in the enterprise at the 
moment of action. The Count de Soissons ended by becoming 
reconciled with Bichelieu through the medium of his brother- 
in-law, the Duke de Longueville, all the while preserving the 
intention of separating from the cardinal and of destroying 
him as soon as he should find a good opportunity. During this 
peace of short duration, the eonfidaiit of the Count de Soissons 
labored to procure himself partisans by every means. He 
connected himself with Cinq-Mars, and though the count was 
secretly engaged to a person whom he loved, and who is not 
named in the letters, Alexandre de Campion did not scruple 



70 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

to give several princesses and tlieir families reason to hope for 
his hand. In 1640, the plot, which had never been entirely 
abandoned, was revived by the Duke de Bouillon and the 
Count de Soissons. The Grand- Equerry, without directly join- 
ing in it, promised his support.' Emanuel de Gondi, formerly 
general of the galleys, and now priest of the Oratory, father 
of the Duke de Retz and the future cardinal, and the Presi- 
dents de Mesmes and Bailleul were consulted, not as 
accomplices, but as friends. The penetrating Richelieu 

^ "August 20, 1640. M. le Grand is much pleased that I have added 
the compHments of M. de Bouillon to your own. He has charged me to 
offer you many in return, and especially to assure you that, at the proper 
time and place, you will see evidence that he was sincere in protesting to 
you, through me, that he was your most humble servant. He is certain 
that the cardinal designs to destroy him; from this you can judge of his 
intentions. He is on good terms with the queen, Monsieur, and yourself, 
and acts adroitly. No one knows that I see him, and if prosperity 
does not blind him, he is capable of undertaking something of importance. 
In any case, should you be pressed, and forced to take up arms to shield 
yourself from oppression, it is well to have for a protector near the king, 
an injured man, who, for his own interest, will not lose the occasion of de- 
stroying the one who wishes to ruin him. I know well that those who do 
not like him will chide his ingratitude because the Cardinal is his bene- 
factor, but this does not concern you." Let us also transcribe this letter 
to De Thou of March 3, 1641, one year before the affair which led him 
to the scaffold: " I protest that neither the reasons which you alleged 
to me ten days since, in the Carmes-Dechausses, nor those which you write 
me, persuade me in any manner, and that I have nothing to add to the 
answer I made you. A scheme like that in which you and your friend 
wish to embark me, which will at once be suspected by * * * who 
has no love for me, exposes me to his vengeance, and will end in nothing. 
I know the men, and their design of ruining him through the cabinet is 
a chimera which will destroy them and, perhaps, you also." There is 
another letter in the Recueil to De Thou, in which Alexandre de Campion 
informs him that he sends back a portrait, letters, and jewels, which his 
friend had confided to him, in order that he may return them " to that 
illustrious person for whom 'you are accused of sighing." Madame de 
Guymene is probably the person alluded to. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. Vl 

divined their purpose and removed them from the court and 
from Paris/ After remaining for some time on this perilous 
stage, where he often encountered the Abbe de Ketz,^ Campion 
was himself compelled to fly to Sedan, lie was sent to Brus- 
sels to negotiate with Spain, and it was then that he became 
acquainted with Madame de Chevreuse. Did politics alone 
contribute to this liaison ? We know not, but when Alexandre 
de Campion recounts to the Count de Soissons all that he owes 
to Madame de Chevreuse, the gay young count rallies his young 
and chivalrous follower a little on his success with the beauti- 
ful duchess ; to which the latter replies with apparent modesty, 
mingled with considerable self-conceit : " June 3, 1641. M. 
de Chatillon (who commanded the army sent by Richelieu 
against the rebels) causes you but little fear, since you think 
of rallying me in your letter ; and this is thanking me but 
little for the services which I render you in gaining an illus- 
trious adherent to your party, and in procuring you a friend 
who otherwise would never have been such. She is persuaded 
of your friendship by the compliments which you offer her in 
your letters; but if she had seen what you have written to me, 
perhaps she would not act with so much zeal ; your railleries 
not being over agreeable. She has written to the count-duke, 
so that you will have his assistance ; and as she has entire 
power over Don Antonio Sarmieuto, she has written to him 
also in the same strain ; indeed, she is very zealous for you. 
I do not know that you would pay the debt as cheaply as you 

^ "December 24, 1640. According to your order, I shall show your 
letters to your mother, to the Pere de Gondi, and to the Presidents de 
Mesmes and de Bailleul. . . But I shall take the hberty of telling you 
that I should be very glad to see them in private, lest the cardinal should 
know that they are your friends ; it may ruin them if he discovers it." 
♦' January 1641. I do not doubt the displeasure which you have felt 
at the removal of the Pei-e de Gondi and of the two presidents. I strongly 
suspect that their visits to the Hotel de Soissons were known." 

"^ Memoir e&^ vol. i., p. 26. 



72 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

imagine if the state of your affairs should oblige you to make 
a tour hither, or if her own should compel her to take the 
road to Sedan; but if you will believe me, you will not have 
so flattering an opinion of me, since I constantly regard these 
superior deities with respect and veneration ; and as they take 
care never to descend to me, I am careful never to raise my 
pretensions to them. Having spoken to you frankly, I venture 
to hope that you will both spare me for the future, and her 
who charges herself with advancing your affairs as if they were 
her own." But without ascribing to her more private rea- 
sons, Madame de Chevreuse was ready to serve with zeal in an 
enterprise directed against the common enemy. She wrote to 
the Count-Duke Olivares, and strongly enforced on him the 
demands of the Count de Soissons, and the Duke de Bouillon. 
At Brussels, she won over Don Antonio Sarmiento, and she 
gave to Campion, as well as to the Abbe de Merci, the intriguing 
agent in the service of Spain, letters to the Duke of Lorraine, 
in which she urged him not to lose this excellent occasion 
for repairing his past misfortunes, and for striking Bichelieu 
a mortal blow. Charles IV., urged on at once by Madame 
de Chevreuse, by his relative, the Duke de Guise, by the 
Spanish minister, and, most of all, by his own restless and 
adventurous ambition, broke the solemn alliance which he had 
but recently contracted with France, entered into a treaty with 
Spain and with the Count de Soissons, and made haste to go 
to the aid of Sedan. General Lamboy and Colonel Metter- 
nich hastened from Flanders with six thousand imperialists, 
while, at the same time, Madame de Chevreuse and the exiles 
moved all the springs which were in their hands. France and 
Europe were in anxious expectation. Never had Richelieu 
been in greater danger ; and the loss of the battle of the Mar- 
fee would have been fatal to him, had not the Count de Sois- 
sons met death in his triumph. 

Did Madame de Chevreuse remain a stranger in 1642 to 
the new conspiracy of Monsieur, Cinq-Mars, and the Duke de 



UNDEE EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 73 

Bouillon ? If so, it was tlie only one in which she was not 
concerned. It is very doubtful whether she was not in the 
secret, as well as Queen Anne, whose correspondence with 
Cinq-Mars and Monsieur cannot be contested. While con- 
ducting herself guardedly towards Louis XIII. and his min- 
ister, Anne of Austria had not abandoned her former senti- 
ments nor even her designs, and she may even have been com- 
promised in the affair of the Count de Soissons, if we may 
believe these notable words from Alexandre de Campion to 
Madame de Chevreuse, dated the 15th of August, 1641 : 
" Have no fear of the letters which speak of ihat person for 
whom of all others you have the greatest devotion ; M. de 
Bouillon and I have burned all which were in the count's cas- 
ket." The queen certainly knew of the plot of Cinq-Mars 
and consented to it. Perhaps she was ignorant of the treaty 
with Spain, but in all else she acted in concert with the con- 
spirators against the cardinal. La Rochefoucauld affirms this 
several times as a thing in which he had been concerned. 
•' The eclat of the influence of M. le Grand," says he, " awak- ' 
ened the hopes of the malcontents : the queen and Monsieur 
joined themselves to him, and the Duke de Bouillon and 
several persons of rank followed their example. M. de Thou 
came to me on behalf of the queen to inform me of her alli- 
ance with M. le Grand, and to tell me that she had promised 
him that I would be among her friends."^ The Duke de Bou- 
illon ^ declares that the queen was firmly leagued with Monsieur 
and with the Grand-Equerry, and that she herself demanded 
his aid : " The queen, who had been persecuted by the cardinal 
in so many ways, doubted not that if the king should die, he 
would seek to take her children from her in order to procure 
for himself the regency ? ^ She sought the Duke de Bouillon 

^ Memoires^ ibid., pp. 362 and 363. 

* Memoires of the Life of Fred. Maurice de la Tour d'Auvergne, Duke 
de Bouillon (by his secretary, Langlade), Paris, 1692, in 12mo. 

^ This fear was not without foundation, for Richelieu endeavored to 
4 



T4 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

secretly througli De Thou, and asked him whether, if the 
king should die, he would promise to receive her in Sedan, 
with her two children, believing that there would be no 
place of safety for them in all France, so much was she 
persuaded of the evil intentions of the cardinal and fearful 
of his power. De Thou said further to the Duke de Bouil- 
lon that, since the illness of the king, the queen and Mon- 
sieur, the Duke d' Orleans, were closely leagued together, 
and that it was through Cinq-Mars that this alliance had been 
made. Two days after, De Thou wished the queen to express 
to the Duke de Bouillon the satisfaction which she felt at the 
manner in which he had replied to what had been said to him 
in her behalf; this she could only do in a few words in pass- 
ing, when going to the mass, committing the rest to De Thou 
as having entire confidence in him. Turenne, writing later 
to his sister. Mademoiselle de Bouillon, says to her : " You can 
judge how much it must affect my brother to see the queen and 
Monsieur still in power, while he has lost Sedan for the love of 
her." ' Now, where Queen Anne was so deeply engaged, 
Madame de Chevreuse would scarcely have remained idle. 

induce the king to grant him the guardianship of his children. He al- 
most succeeded, as we see in this precious document, which we extract 
from the archives of foreign affairs, France, vol ci., letter of Chavign}'- 
to Richelieu of the 28th of July, 1642 : " The king told me that several 
days since, at the time of his dangerous illness at the camp of Per- 
pignan, M. le Grand endeavored in conversation to persuade him to 
give the guardianship of his children after his death to himself, without 
however saying it openly. Upon this, I took occasion to exaggerate 
the effrontery and horrible ambition of this profligate, and to show to 
his majesty that a person must have all the qualities which he had not 
in order to be capable of such guardianship, when he said to me, ' If God 
leaves me reason to direct what shall happen after my death, I can only 
leave them to Monseigneur the cardinal. To which I only replied by 
protestations on the part of his Eminence of affection and tenderness for 
so good a master.' " 

^ Lettres et Meonoires, etc., published by General Grimoard in folio, vol. 
i.,p.4U. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 75 

Let us add that she had long been very intimate with De Thou, 
who had been compromised on her account in some affair, the 
particulars of which it is impossible for us now to discover, but 
for which we know that he had ^-reat difficulty in obtaining 
his pardon from the cardinal, as he himself acknowledged in 
the fatal trial that brought him to the scaffold/ A friend of 
Kichelieu, who does not reveal his name, but who seems to 
be well informed concerning the matter, does not hesitate to 
place Madame de Chevreuse as well as the queen among those 
who at that time sought to overthrow him. " M. le Grand," 
writes he to the cardinal, " has been urged on to his evil de- 
sign by the queen-mother, her daughter, the queen of France, 
Madame de Chevreuse, and Lord Montagu, with other of the 
English papists.'' Lastly, the cardinal himself, who doubtless 
for his health, but also for his safety, had withdrawn to Taras- 
con in the beginning of June, 164rt^,^ with his two confidants, 
Mazarin and Chavigny, and his faithful regiments of guards, 
feeling himself surrounded by perils, on representing to Louis 
XIII. the danger of his position, quotes what has been written 
him concerning Madame de Chevreuse as among its most 
striking indications.^ Indeed, what party was it that was con- 

^ Nouveaux Memoirea d'histoire^ de critique et de litterature^ by the 
Abbe d'Artigny, vol. iv. Pieces originales concernant le proces de MM. 
de Bouillon, Cinq-Mars et de Thou. Examination of July 6, 1642, and 
more particularly the second examination of July 24. " Being question- 
ed in respect to the affair of Madame de Chevreuse, he said that, having 
the word of the cardinal, he felt himself secure, well knowing that he 
would not grant pardon by halves." 

^ Archives of foreign affairs, France, vol. ci., letter of July 4. 

^ Archives of foreign affairs, France, vol. cii., ineditcd memoir of 
Richelieu. "It is necessary that MM. de Chavigny and De Noyers speak 
to the king and tell him that the cardinal, wishing to depart for Narbonne 
as he had advised for change of air, and not knowing what effect this 
might produce on lijs disease, wishes to express the entire confidence 
which he has in his majesty by informing him of the indications on 
every side. The letters of the Prince of Orange, the Gazette of Brus- 



76 . SECEET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

spiring against Richelieu ? Was it not the party of former 
times, the party of the League of Austria and of Spain ? And 
was not Madame de Chevreuse by her engagements with the 
Duke of Lorraine, the Queen of England, the Chevalier de 
Jars at Rome, and the Count-Duke Olivares at Madrid, made 
one of the chief powers of this party ? When, therefore, it 
was seen to he in motion, it was very natural to suspect the 
hand of Madame de Chevreuse in all its movements. 

But the eye of Richelieu soon pierced the darkness which 
enveloped it ; he saw clearly into the intrigues of the 
Grand-Equerry whom he had long suspected, and a treason, 
the secret of which has remained impenetrable to all inves- 
tigation for two centuries, threw into his hands the treaty 
that had been concluded with Spain, through the medium 
of Fontrailles, in the name of Monsieur, of Cinq-Mars, and of 
the Duke de Bouillon. Thenceforth the cardinal felt assured 
of victory. He understood Louis XIIL ; he knew that he 
might, in a burst of his fitful and capricious temper, have 
complained to his favorite of his minister, and even have wished 
to be delivered from him, and thus have paved the way to 
dangerous conversation ; ' but he also knew to what degree he 
was a king and a Frenchman, and devoted to their common 
system of policy. He hastened, therefore, to send Chavigny 
to Narbonne with the authentic proofs of the Spanish treaty. 

sels, and that of Cologne, the preparations of the queen-mother for leav- 
ing England, the litters and mules that have been pui-chased, all that has 
been written in genuine letters of Madame de Chevreuse, all that we hear 
from the courts of France, the rumors which are in the armies, the ad- 
vices which come from the courts of Italy, the hopes of the Spaniards 
both on the side of Spain and Flanders, the resolution which Monsieur 
has taken of not coming as he had promised, — waiting, perhaps, for the 
result of the storm, — all these things oblige him to warn the king, in 
order that he may take such measures as he may- please in respect to 
these rumors which disturb the public peace." 

^ See the 3femoires of Monglat, Coll. Petitot, vol. i., p. 875. 



UNDEE EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. T7 

At the sight of these proofs, Louis was troubled ; ^ he could 
scarcely believe his own eyes, and he fell into a deep melan- 
choly, from which he recovered with bursts of indignation 
against him who could thus abuse his confidence and conspire 

^ The details of this aflair are not even given by the Pere Grififet ; they 
are only to be found in the archives of foreign affairs, France, vol. cii. 
Dui-ing the fii^st days of June, the domestic troubles of the king, the in- 
trigues of Cinq-Mars, who was still at Narbonne, near him, and the dan- 
gers of the cardinal, were the subjects of Richelieu's inquiry, but not a 
word of the treaty of Spain. On the 12th of June all was made clear by 
the following billet of De Chavigny and De Noyers to Riche-lieu : " Nar- 
bonne, this 12th of June, at 10 A. M. — M. de Chavigny arrived this 
morning an hour before the king awakened. M. de Noyers and he, after 
having conferred together, sought his majesty, to whom they recounted 
in detail all the affairs of which he had been notified. All the measures 
have been taken in conformity with the views of his Eminence, and 
the despatches will be made this day without fail. The king approves of 
the journey of M. Castelan in Piedmont. — Chavigny, dk Noyers." Here 
all is clear. On the 11th of June Richeheu received the decisive news. 
He instantly sent Chavigny to the king with the proofs, and also with the 
measures he proposed to take. Chavigny travelled all night, and at 
twelve in the morning, in company with De Noyers, he saw the king, 
who read the despatches sent him by Richelieu, listened to the expla- 
nations of the ministers, and immediately approved and adopted the 
necessary measures, among which was the sending of Castelan to the 
Italian army to arrest the Duke de Bouillon. On the 12th Louis did not 
hesitate ; but afterwards he fell a prey to gloomy reflections. Letter of 
De Noyers to Chavigny, who had returned to Taraseon, dated the 15th 
of June, says : " I think that it will be necessary to find means to enable 
M. de M. (azarin) to speak to the king, for strange thoughts trouble his 
mind. He said to me yesterday that he doubted whether one name had 
not been substituted for another. I thereupon said all that you can 
imagine to divert him from this idea, but he is still in a profound reverie. 
He was taken ill in the night, and at two took medicine, after which he 
slept for two hours. I saw him this morning, and gave him news of his 
Eminence, of whose improvement he was glad to hear. At the same 
time I showed him the extract from the letter of M. de Courbonne, and 
through this the arrangement of his Eminence with Savoy, and the ad- 
vice concerning the islands. Upon this he made no comment, but said to 



78 SECEET HISTOKY OF THE FEENCH COUET 

with a foreign power. There was no need of inflaming him , 
he was the first to demand an exemplary punishment ; not a 
day, not an hour would he be moved by the youth of a culprit 
who had been so dear to him ; he thought only of his crime, 
and signed his death-warrant without hesitation. If he spared 
the Duke de Bouillon, it was but in order to gain Sedan. 
He pardoned his brother, the Duke d'Orlcans, but dishonored 
him and deprived him of all power in the State. Owing to a 
rumor proceeding from a servant of Fontrailles, and which 
the memoirs of Fontrailles fully confirm,^ his suspicions rested 
on the queen, ^ and he could never be persuaded from the 
opinion that in this, as in the affair of Chalais, Anne of Austria 
was allied with Monsieur. What would he have said if he 



me, "What a leap M. le Grand has made,' which he repeated two or 
three times." Another letter of the same date says: "I think that the 
sooner the Cardinal Mazarin comes here, the better it will be, for I per- 
ceive in truth that his majest}' has need of consolation, and that his heart 
is very full." Letter of July l^th, De Noyers to Richelieu, concerning the 
arrangements of the king : " The king has said to us privately that Sedan 
is well worth an indemnity, but that he will never pardon M. le Grand, 
and that he will abandon him to the judges to act towards him according 
to their conscience." Letter of July 19th: "The king has entertained 
the thought of saving the life of M. de Bouillon in order to gain Sedan, 
but of leaving M. le Grand to his fate." 

^ Relation de Fontrailles^ Coll. Petitot, vol. liv., p. 438 : " When 
I was alone with M. de Thou (at Carcassonne, after the Spanish voyage) 
he suddenly spoke to me of the journey which I had just made, Avhich 
surprised me greatly, as I thought it had been concealed from him. 
When I asked him how he had learned it, he frankly told me in confi- 
dence that he knew it from the queen, who had it from Monsieur. I 
admit that I did not think her so well informed, although I was not igno- 
rant that her majesty had earnestly wished that a cabal might be formed 
in the court, and that she had contributed all in her power to it, as she 
could not but profit by it." 

^ Archives of foreign affairs, France, vol. cii. Chavigny to Riche- 
lieu, October 24 : " The king gave the queen a bad reception yesterday. 
He is still greatly incensed against her, and constantly talks about it." 



. XJlfDEE EICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 79 

had read the relation of Fontrailles, the memoirs of the Duke 
de Bouillon, the note of Turenne, and the declaration of La 
Kochefoucauld ? To our eyes, the accordance of these wit- 
nesses is decisive. The assertions of the Duke de Bouillon and 
of La Rochefoucauld are such that their authority can only be 
revoked by imputing to both, not an error merely, but a false- 
hood — and a falsehood at once gratuitous and odious. The 
queen used every effort to calm this new storm, and to per- 
suade the king and Richelieu of her innocence. We have seen 
that in 1637 she did not hesitate to use the most solemn 
protestations and the most sacred oaths in the denial of that 
which she had afterwards been forced to confess. In 1642 
she had recourse to the same means. She descended to 
humiliations as incompatible with a clear conscience as with 
her dignity and her rank. She lavished marks of attachment 
and interest on Richelieu ; she affected a great horror of the 
ingratitude of the Grand-Equerry ; she declared that she com- 
mitted herself without reserve into the hands of the cardinal ; 
that she only wished in future to be governed by his counsels, 
and that she would henceforth seek all her happiness in her 
children, whose education she abandoned to Richelieu. She 
wrote to him herself to inquire anxiously concerning his health, 
as she had formeily asked his hand and offered her own in 
token of eternal friendship, adding very humbly that he need 
not give himself the trouble of replying to her.^ 

' Archives of foreign affairs, ibid., vol. ci., letter of Le Gras, 
secretary of the queen's orders, to Chavigny. Saint Germain, July 2, 
1642: "This extreme ingratitude is so shocking to her that she expresses 
her sentiments regarding it to the king in this letter, which she prays 
you to transmit to him." Ibid., vol. cii., letter of the Count de Brassac, 
superintendent of the queen's household, to Chavigny, dated July 20 : 
''The queen cannot relVain from expressing the satisfaction which has 
driven away her indisposition, and which makes her seem so gay that 
every one sees plainly all that is in her heart." Ibid., vol. ci., another 
letter to Chavigny from Le Gras, in which he reminds him of his first 



80 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FREISTCH COURT 

Anne went still further ; she set no limits to her dissimu 
latlon and falsehood ; in this extreme peril, she went so far as 
to turn against the courageous friend who had devoted herself 
for her. She would have embraced her as a liberator, had 
fortune declared itself in her favor ; vanquished and disarmed, 
she abandoned her. As she had protested her horror of the 
conspiracy which had failed, and of her two imprudent and 
unfortunate accomplices, who mounted the scaffold without 
naming her, so, seeing the king and Richelieu incensed against 
Madame de Chevreuse, and determined to repulse the new 
attempts made by her family to obtain her recall, the queen, 
far from interceding for her former favorite, zealousl}^ joined 
with her enemies ; and in order to mask her real sentiments, 
and to seem to applaud what she could not prevent, she asked 
as a special favor that the duchess should be kept far from 
herself and even from France. " The queen," writes Chavigny, 
the minister of foreign affairs^ to Richelieu,^ '' the queen asked 
me if it were true that Madame de Chevreuse would return ; 
thea, without waiting for an answer, she said that she would 
be sorry to see her again in France, for she now understood 
her true character ; and she commanded me to entreat his 
Eminence in her behalf, that, if he wished to do any thing for 
Madame de Chevreuse, it should be done without permitting 

letter and that of M. de Brassac, etc. Ibid , Chavigny to Kichelieu, 
July 28 : " The queen is so grateful for the obhgations that she owes to 
Monseigneur, that it would be difficult to change the resolutions which 
she has formed of acting in future only by the counsels of his Eminence, 
and of placing herself wholly in his hands. She commands me to give him 
this assurance on her part." Ibid., from the same to the same, Aug. 12 : 
"I am persuaded that the friendship which the queen expresses for Mon- 
seigneur is without dissimulation, and that she will certainly continue it, 
asking no other favor than to be near her children, yet without pretending 
to govern them or to meddle with their education, which she earnestly de- 
sires Monseigneur to superintend. She has commanded me to assure hia 
Kminonce of this, and that she is extremely impatient to see bim." 
* Archives of foreign att'airs, ibid. Letter of the 2Stli ot July. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 81 

her return to France. I assured her Majesty that she should 
be satisfied on this point.'' — " I have never seen a truer or 
more sincere satisfaction than that which the queen felt on 
hearing what I said to her from Monseigneur. She protests 
that she not only does not wish Madame de Chevreuse to 
approach her, but that she is resolved, for her own safety, to 
suffer no person to advise her to the neglect of the most trifling 
part of her duty," ^ 

Behold Madame de Chevreuse, then, fallen, as it seems, to 
the lowest depth of misfortune. Her situation was deplora- 
ble ; she suffered in every chord of her heart ; no hope re- 
mained to her of again seeing her country, her beautiful 
chateau, her children, her daughter Charlotte. DrawiEg 
almost nothing from France, she was at the end of resources, 
of loans, and of debts. She learned how hard it is to mount 
and to descend the staircase of the stranger f to endure, by 
turns, the vanity of his promises and the haughtiness of his 
disdain. And that no bitterness might be spared her, the one 
who at least owed to her a silent fidelity, had openly ranged 
herself on the side of fortune and of Richelieu. She thus 
passed several most unhappy months, with no other support 
than her courage. Suddenly, on the 4th of December, 1642, 
the redoubted cardinal, victorious over all his enemies without 
and within, and absolute master of the king and the queen, 
succumbed while at the zenith of power. Louis XIII. was 
not long in following him ; but, forced in spite of himself to 
confide the regency to the queen, and to appoint his brother 
lieutenant-general of the kingdom, he imposed on them a 
council, without whose consent they could do nothing, and in 
which should rule, in the capacity of prime minister, the man 
of all others the most devoted to the system of Richelieu, his 
particular friend, his confidant and his creature, the Cardinal 
Jules Mazarin. Even this capricious measure, which, through 

Mbid. Letter of August 12. =^ Dante. 

4* 



82 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

distrust of the future regent, placed royalty in some sort m 
commission, was not sufficient. Louis XIII. believed that he 
could only insure the tranquillity of his kingdom, after his 
death, by confirming and perpetuating, as far as was in his 
power, the exile of Madame de Chevreuse. In his pious 
aversion toward the active and enterprising duchess, he was 
accustomed to call her h Dialle. He scarcely loved more, 
and he feared almost as much, the former keeper of the seals, 
Chateauneuf, who was imprisoned in the citadel of Angouleme. 
As if the shade of the cardinal still governed him on his death- 
bed, before expiring, he inscribed in his last will and testament, 
in the royal declaration of April 21, this extraordinary clause 
concerning Chateauneuf and Madame de Chevreuse : " Inas- 
much, says the king, as for grave reasons, important to the 
good of our service, we have been obliged to deprive the Sieur 
de Chateauneuf of the office of Keeper of the Seals of France, 
and to cause him to be conducted to the citadel of Angouleme, 
wliere he has since remained by our orders, we will and re- 
quire that the said Sieur de Chateauneuf shall remain in the 
same state in which he is at the present time in the said 
citadel of Angouleme, until after the peace shall be concluded 
and executed ; with the proviso, however, that he shall not 
then be liberated except by the order of the Dame-Kegent, 
together with the advice of the council, which shall prescribe 
a plan for his retreat either in the kingdom or out of the king- 
dom, as it shall deem best. And, as it is our design to pro- 
vide against all the subjects who may in any manner disturb 
the judicious arrangement which we have made in order to 
preserve the repose and tranquillity of our state, the knowledge 
which we possess of the rebellious conduct of Madame de 
Chevreuse, of the artifices which she has used to excite dis- 
sension in our kingdom, and of the factions and the corre- 
spondence which she maintains abroad with our enemies, causes 
us to deem it proper to forbid her, as we do forbid her, the 
entrance to our kingdom during the war ; willing, also, that 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 83 

after the peace shall be concluded and executed, she shall not 
return to our kingdom, except by the orders of the said Dame 
Queen Regent, together with the advice of the said council; 
with the additional proviso that she shall neither reside nor 
remain in any place near the court and the same Dame-Queen." 
These solemn words designated Madame de Chevreuse and 
Chateauneuf not only as the two most illustrious victims of 
the closing reign, but also as the chiefs of the new policy which 
seemed about to replace that of Richelieu. Louis XIII. 
breathed his last on the 14th of May, 1643. A few days 
after, the same parliament which had registered his testament 
amended it ; the new regent was freed from all fetters and put 
in possession of the absolute sovereignty; Chateauneuf left 
his prison, and Madame de Chevreuse quitted Brussels in 
triumph to return to the court and to France. 



84 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 



SECOND PAET. 



CHAPTEK III. 

MAY, JUNE, AND JULY, 1643. 

Madame de Chevreuse returns to tlie Court and to Paris. — New Arrangements of thf. 
Queen. — Anne of Austria and Mazarin. — Efforts of Madame de Chevreuse in favor 
of the former Party of the Queen and against the Policy and the Partisans of Riche- 
lieu. — Her Solicitations in behalf of Chateauneuf, the Vendomes, and La Eoche- 
foucauld.— Her Home and Foreign Policy.— Madame de Chevreuse the true Chief 
of the Party of the Importants.— Defeated in her efforts to gain the Queen, she 
resolves to have recourse to other means. — A Crisis becomes inevitable; it oc- 
curs on the occasion of the Quarrel between Madame de Montbazon and Madame 
de Longueville. 

On the 20tli of June, 1643, the following article appeared 
iu Renaudot's Gazette, the 3fonitenr of the times:' 

Their Majesties having despatched the Sieur de Boispille, 
steward of the household of the Duke de Chevreuse, to Brus- 
sels, to hasten the return of his wife, the duchess, she set out 
from there on the 6th of this month, accompanied bj twenty 
carriages filled with the noblest lords and ladies of that court, 
who escorted her as far as Notre Dame de Hau. The next 
day she reached Mons in Hainault, passing through the Span- 
ish army that lies encamped in tiie valley, where she lodged, 
and thence by Conde arrived on the 9th at Cambrai, being 
everywhere honorably received by the governors and the no- 

^No. 11, p. 519. 



U]SDER RICHELIEU AND MAZAmN. 85 

"bles of the country, and escorted by them a league be3rond the 
said Cambrai, where the Sieur d'Hocquincourt' received her on 
the French frontier, and, conducting her to Peronne, of which 
he was governor, gave her there a magnificent reception. She 
was visited there by the Duchess de Chaulne, and on the 12th 
was conducted thence by the Dake de Chaulne'^ to his house, 
where she was splendidly entertained. Leaving Chaulne the 
same day, she reached Koye, where she lodged, and on the 13th 
arrived at Versine, the house of the Sieur de Saint Simon, 
brother of the duke of the same name, where the Duke de 
Chevreuse was awaiting her, and where she was received and 
treated in the same manner. Finally, on the 14tli of this 
monthj she reached Paris, ten years after having quitted it ; in 
which absence this princess has shown what a brave spirit like 
her own can do, despite the strokes of adverse fortune which 
her constancy has surmounted. She went instantly to salute 
their majesties, in which visit she received so many tokens of 
the queen's affection, and gave to her so many proofs of zeal 
in every thing that related to her interests, and also of entire 
resignation to her will, that it seems most evident that neither 
absence, nor distance, nor the cares of business, can effect any 
change in any but vulgar souls. But the great retinue of 
court nobles who visit her continually, and fill her spacious 
palace to overflowing,^ does not inspire one with so much ad* 

^ The future Marshal d'Hocquincourt, a warrior and pleasure-lover, 
and a fickle politician, who, in the Fronde, strayed from Mazarin to 
Conde, and wrote to Madame de Montbazon, Peronne est d, la belle des 
belles. 

^ The Duke and Marshal de Chaulne was the second brother of the 
Constable de Luynes. 

^ Not the Hotel de Luynes, the residence of the son of the constable, 
on the Quai des Grands-Augustins, at the corner of the Rue Git-le-coeur, 
of which Perelle has executed a charming little engraving, and in which 
the Chancellor Seguier took refuge during the Fronde, when the popu- 
lace attacked him on the Pont-Neuf when going to the parliament, but 



88 SECEET HISTOET OF THE FEENCH COTJET 

miration as does the fact that neither the fatigues of her long 
journeys, nor the ills of her rigorous fortune, have wrought 
any change in her natural magnanimity, nor, which is still 
more extraordinary, in her beauty. 

Behold the seeming ! — see now the reality. Madame de 
Chevreuse was then forty-three years of age. Her beauty, 
which had been tried by so many fatigues, was still surviving, 
but was beginning to decline. Her love for admiration still 
existed, but in a weaker degree, while her taste for politics 
took the lead. She had seen the most celebrated statesmen in 
Europe ; she knew almost all the courts, with the strength 
and the weakness of the different governments, and she had 
gained in her journeyings a vast experience. She hoped to 
find Queen Anne such as she had left her, disliking business 
and very willing to let herself be guided by those for whom 
she had a particular affection ; and as Madame de Chevreuse 
believed herself the first affection of the queen, she thought to 
exercise over her the two-fold ascendency of friendship and 
of talent. More ambitious for her friends than for herself, 
she saw them already recompensed for their long sacrifices, 
everywhere replacing the creatures of Richelieu, and at their 
head as prime minister, him for whom she had separated her- 
self from the triumphant cardinal and had endured an impris- 
onment of ten years. She did not attach much importance to 
Mazarin, whom she did not know, whom she had never seen, 

the Hotel de Chevreuse, Rue Saint-Thomas du Louvre, next the Hotel 
Rambouillet, a magnificent palace, built by the Marquis de Vieuville 
while he was superintendent of finances, and purchased in 1620 by the 
Constable de Luynes, and which, after his death and the new marriai^e 
of his widow, was called the Hotel de Chevreuse, becoming afterwards 
the Hotel d'Epernon, and still later, in 1663, the Hotel de Longiieville. 
Madame de Chevreuse then caused the beautiful palace of the Rue 
Saint-Dominique-Saint-Germain to be built by the celebrated artist Le- 
muet. This has also been represented by Perelle, and is now occupied 
by the Duke de Luynes. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 87 

and who seemed to her witliout support at the court and in 
France, while on the contrary she felt herself sustained by all 
its rank, its power, and its credit. She believed herself sure 
of Monsieur, wlio could easily rule his wife, the beautiful 
Maro'uerite, sister of Oharles IV. Havino- iast returned from 
Flanders, she could dispose of nearly all of the house of Ro- 
han and of the house of Lorraine, particularly of the Duke da 
Guise and the Duke d'Elbeuf. She could count on the Yen 
domes, on the Duke d'Epernon, and on La Vieuville, her 
former companions of exile in England ; on the Bouillons, if 
maltreated ; on La Rochefoucauld, whose spirit and preten- 
sions were known to her ; on Lord Montagu, who had been 
her admirer, and who then possessed the entire confidence of 
Anne of Austria ; on La Ghatre, the friend of the Vendomes 
and colonel-general of the Swiss, on Treville, on Beringhen, 
on Jars, on La Porte, and on many others who had lately 
quitted prison, exile, and disgrace. Among the women, her 
mother and sister-in-law, Madame de Montbazon and Madame 
de Guymene, the two great beauties of the day, who drew after 
them a numerous train of old and new admirers, seemed to her 
already gained. She knew, too, that one of the first acts of 
the new regent had been to recall near her person two noble 
victims of Richelieu, Madame de Seneco and Madame de 
Hautefort. whose piety and virtue would usefully conspire 
with other influences to give them a valuable support in the 
conscience of Anne of Austria. All these calculations seemed 
certain, all these hopes well founded, and Madame de Chev- 
reuse quitted Brussels in the firm persuasion that she was 
about to enter the Louvre in triumph. She was mistaken ; 
he queen was changed, or very nearly so. 

If the time has come for restoring Louis XIIL to the 
place in history that belongs to him, it is also time to do jus- 
tice to Anne of Austria. She was no ordinary person. Beau- 
tiful and needing to be loved,'and at the same time vain and 
haughty, she had been deeply wounded by the coldness and 



88 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

neglect of her husband, and, in a spirit of vengeance as well 
as of coquetry, she had amused herself bj exciting more than 
one pa siou in those about her, but without ever overstepping 
t',e liinits of Spanish gallantry. She had submitted with itn- 
])atienc3 to be treated contemptuously, deprived of all power, 
uid held in a sort of permanent diso;race by the king and 
Il.chelieu ; but this aroused in her heart a subdued yet bitter 
opposition to the government of the cardinal. She had even 
been engaged in various enterprises which, as we have seen, 
had been unsuccessful and had involved her in great danger. 
She then called to her aid another of her womanly and Spanish 
talents, dissimulation. Misfortune speedily taught her this 
" ugly, but necessary virtue," as Madame de Motteville calls 
it,' and we have seen that she made rapid progress in it. Nat- 
urally indolent, she had no love for business ; yet she was sen- 
sible and even courageous, and capable of understanding and 
of following counsel. Flitherto she had played a double 
game ; striving to make to herself partisans in secret, to en- 
courage and urge forward the malcontents, to endeavor to 
escape from the yoke of the cardinal, and notwithstanding, to 
look pleasantly on him, to lull him by false demonstrations, to 
humiliate herself when necessary, to gain time — and to wait. 
Aftsr the death of Richelieu, feeling herself stronger both by 
her two children and by the incurable malady of Louis XIII., 
she had but a single aim to which she sacrificed every thing — 
that of being regent — and she succeeded in this, thanks to a 
rare patience, to infinite caution, and to an adroit and well- 
sustained course of conduct ; thanks also to the unhoped-for 
service rendered her by Mazarin, the principal minister of the 
king. Anne neglected nothing in order to subdue the king'a 
resentment; she unceasingly lavished on him the tenderest 
cures, passing both days and nights by his side ; she protested 
with tears that s!_e had never failed in her duty to him, that 

' Vol. i., p. 186. 



rn^DER EICHELIEU" AND MAZAEIN. 89 

she was a stranger to the plot of Chalais, and that all the accu- 
sations which had been heaped upon her were without founda- 
tion. All this had but little effect on the mind of the king, 
who contented himself with saying :^ " In my present state, it 
is my duty tc forgive her, but I am not obliged to believe 
her/' He had always suspected her of being in correspond- 
ence with Spain and under the sway of Madame de Chev- 
reuse, and he wished to exclude her from the regency, as well 
as his brother, the Duke d'Orleans, whom he neither loved 
nor respected. Mazarin had great dijfficulty in making him 
comprehend that it was impossible to deprive the queen of the 
title of regent, and that all that could be done was to take 
from her all power, by the appointment of a carefully arranged 
council whose advice she would be obliged to follow by actios; 
in conformity with the voice of the majority. Anne submit- 
ted to these hard and humiliating conditions without a mur- 
mur ; she acknowledged the royal declaration of the 21st of 
April, which restricted her authority within the narrowest 
limits, and perpetuated the exile of Chateauneuf and of Ma- 
dame de Chevreuse ; and signed it, pledging herself to maintain 
it. After all, she was in possession of the regency; and as 
she owed this to the same scheme which limited her power, far 
from being displeased with its author, she regarded it as a 
first service which merited some acknowledgment. Observe 
a fact which most historians have overlooked, but which has 
not escaped the penetration of La Rochefoucauld, who mingled 
in all the intrigues of the day : " The Cardinal Mazarin," says 
he, "justified in some sort this harsh declaration; he repre- 
sented it as an important service rendered to the queen, it 
being the only means which could persuade the king to con- 
sent to the regency. He showed her that it mattered little to 
her on what conditions she had received it, provided it was 
with the consent of the king, and that means would not be 

* La Rochefoucauld, Memoir es, p. 369. 



90 SECEET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

wanting eventually for strengthening her power and enabling 
her to govern alone. These reasons, which were supported 
somewhat by appearances and urged with all the art of the 
cardinal, were the more readily accepted by the queen, that 
he who advanced them was beginning to be not altogether 
disagreeable to her." 

Mazarin, in truth, had had no share in the annoyances 
which the queen had endured ; she had therefore no reason 
for disliking him except that he had been one of the intimate 
friends of Richelieu ; but he had none of the disagreeable airs 
of the cardinal, he had taken part in the recall of the exiles, 
and had shielded the queen's regency from the suspicions 
of the king. His ability was proved, and Anne with her indo- 
lence and inexperience, in the beginning of a reign beset on 
every side from without and within with the greatest difficul- 
ties, had need of some one who would leave to her the honor 
of supreme authority while he took upon himself the weight 
of affairs ; and she saw no one among her friends whose capacity 
was sufficiently tried to inspire her with confidence. She ap- 
preciated the talents and address of La Rochefoucauld, but she 
could not think of so young a minister. The two men nearest 
her, the Duke de Beaufort, youngest son' of the Duke de Ven- 
ddme, and her grand almoner, Potier, Bishop of Beauvais, were 
devoted servants for whom she intended to do much at some 
future day, but whom she dared not yet intrust with the gov- 
ernment. To wait a little, therefore, seemed the wisest course 
to her. Mazarin had more than one secret interview with her. 
He showed himself zealous to serve her, and not unwilling to 
sacrifice to her some of the former ministers of Richelieu who 
had displeased her most, and to act in concert with those of 
her friends to whom she deemed herself under indispensable 
obligations. He had the art to put himself on good terms 
with the Bishop of Beauvais, the spiritual director of the 
queen. He deceived him, as he deceived the Duke de Beau- 
fort and all the rest, by affecting greats. disinterestedness, and 



UXDER RICHELIEU AND MAZAKIN. 91 

by pretending to be on the point of going to enjoy the privi- 
leges and honors of the cardinalate at E-ome, in the bosom 
of his family and the home of the arts.* 

Lastly, there is a delicate point which La Rochefoucauld 
scarcely touches, but which history cannot leave in the shade 
without ignoring the cause which first gave power to Mazarin, 
and soon became the knot and the key of his position — Anne 
of Austria was a woman, and Mazarin did not displease her. 
To quote our own words in another work,^ "After having been 
so long oppressed, the royal authority delighted Anne of Aus- 
tria, and her Spanish soul craved respect and homage. Maza- 
rin lavished them upon her. He threw himself at her feet in 
order to reach her heart. In her heart she was scarcely af- 
fected by the grave accusation which was already raised against 
him — that he was a foreigner — for she was also a foreigner ; 
perhaps, indeed, this was a secret attraction to her, and she 
found a peculiar charm in conversing with her prime minister 
in her mother-tongue as with a fellow-countryman and a friend. 
Add to all this the mind and the manners of Mazarin ; he was 
pliant and insinuating ; always master of himself, of an im- 
movable serenity in the gravest emergencies, full of confidence 
in his good star, and diffusing his confidence everywhere about 
him. It must also be said that — cardinal as he was — Mazarin 
was not a priest ; that, nourished in the maxims of the gal- 
lantry of her country, Anne of Austria had always loved to 
please ; that she was forty-one years of age and was still beau- 
tiful ; that her minister was of the same age, and that he was 
well-made, with a pleasing face, in which refinement was joined 
with dignity. He had quickly perceived that without family, 
without establishment, and without support in France, sur- 
rounded by rivals and by enemies, all his power was in the 

^ See the beginning of Mazarin, La Rochefoucauld, Madame de Motte- 
ville, La Chatre, and both the Briennes. 

" La jeunesse de Madame de Longueville^ 3d edit., ch. iii., p. 21'?. 



92 SECKET HISTOKY OF THE FRENCH COFET 

queen. He therefore endeavored first of all to reacli her 
heart, as Richelieu before hirn had attempted ; but he pos- 
sessed many more means of suc-ceeding; and the handsome 
and pleasing cardinal did succeed. Once master of her heart, 
he easily guided the mind of Anne of Austria, and taught her 
the difficult art of always pursuing the same end under the 
most varied guises, according to the diversity of circum- 
stances." 

But how much time and pains were needed for Mazarin to 
bring Anne of Austria to this point, and to triumph over all 
her scruples ! The history of the progress of Mazarin in the 
heart of the queen is the true history of the first three months 
of the regency. Anne commenced on the 18th of May, 1643, 
by easily persuading herself to retain, for a time at least, 
the minister whom Louis XIII. had bequeathed and com- 
mended to her. We shall see to what point she had arrived 
on the 2d of September of the same year. 

It was impossible for her to preserve the order of the royal 
declaration which established Mazarin as prime minister and 
presiding officer of the council under the Prince, since she 
wished to have all this part of the testament of the late king 
broken by the parliament as limiting the authority of the re- 
gent, contrary to all usages. It was therefore agreed in pre- 
liminary cabals that Mazarin should renounce the sort of right 
which the royal declaration gave him, but that at the same 
time, the regent, freed from all fetters, should voluntarily offer 
him a similar place, so that he would hold his power, not from 
the will of the deceased king, but from the free gift of the 
queen. All this was concluded between them with such se- 
crecy that the surprise was great and general when, on the 
18th of May, the parliament was seen to invest the regent with 
the sovereign authority, while on the same day the Cardinal 
Mazarin was placed at the head of the cabinet. This was the 
result of a skilfully contrived plot which the queen had con- 
cealed from all her friends who were opposed to Mazarin. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 93 

And from this day, too, the cardinal could perceive that he 
had found in Queen Anne, in respect to dissimulation and dip- 
lomatic conduct, a pupil worthy of himself, and already far 
advanced in her studies, 

Mazarin soon established himself in the favor of Anne of 
Austria by his double talent as a laborious and indefatigable 
statesman and as a finished courtier. He took all the cares 
of government upon himself, while he never hesitated to yield 
her all the honors of success. He employed wonderful skill 
and assiduity in instructing without ever wounding her. His 
great art was to persuade her that he only wished for power 
in order to serve her better ; that, a foreigner, without family 
and without friends, he depended entirely on her and wished 
to draw his support from her alone. Such language, sup- 
ported by ability of the first order, could not fail to please, 
and it can be said with truth that the widow of Louis XIII. 
had already another Richelieu near her in the beginning of 
June, 1643, when Madame de Chevreuse quitted Brussels. 

The disciple and the confidant of Richelieu and Louis 
XIII., Mazarin had inherited their opinions and their feel- 
ings concerning Madame de Chevreuse. He understood her 
although he had never seen her, and he profoundly distrusted 
her as well as her friend Chateauneuf. A favorite of such 
talents and of such a character, full of persuasion and of cour- 
age, an open advocate for peace, and secretly attached to the 
Duke of Lorraine, to Austria, and to Spain, who had at her 
beck an ambitious and capable man, was utterly incompati- 
ble with the favor to which he aspired, and with all his dip- 
lomatic and warlike designs. He felt that there was not 
room enough for both in the heart of Anne of Austria, and he 
prepared to combat her in his own manner, stealthily and by 
degrees as occasions might offer. 

Mazarin possessed a secret and powerful ally against Ma- 
dame de Chevreuse in the new and growing taste of the queen 
for repose and for a tranquil life. She had formerly been 



94 SECEET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

somewhat restless because she had been oppressed ; now, 
haviDg attained the supreme power, and happy in the begin- 
ning of a new attachment, she dreaded troubles and adven- 
tures, and feared Madame de Chevreuse almost as much as 
she loved her. The artful cardinal studied to nourish this 
disquietude. He was supported by the Princess de Conde, 
then high in favor with the queen by reason of her own merit, 
by that of her husband, M. le Prince, by the brilliant exploits 
of her son, the Duke d'Enghien, by the services of her son-in- 
law, the Duke de Longueville, who had honorably commanded 
the armies in Italy and Spain, and by the virtues of her 
daughter, Madame de Longueville, but lately married and 
already the delight of the salons and the court. Madame the 
Princess, Charlotte-Marguerite de Montmorenci, formerly so 
celebrated for her beauty, had also, at one time, loved homage 
like Queen Anne ; but, although still beautiful, she had now 
become grave and zealously religious. She disliked Madame 
de Chevreuse, and she detested Chateauneuf, who, in 1632, 
had presided at Toulouse at the judgment and condemnation 
of her brother Henri. She labored, therefore, in concert with 
Mazarin, to destroy or at least to weaken Madame de Chev- 
reuse with the queen. They were armed with the last will of 
Louis XIII., and nearly succeeded in raising a scruple in the 
queen as to violating it so speedily. They urged that days 
once gone by could never return, that the amusements and the 
passions of early youth were " bad accompaniments^ of a riper 

^ These are the exact words of Madame de Motteville, vol. i., p. 162. 
This passage is so important that we must give it here entire : "Many- 
visits and compliments were made to Madame de Chevreuse as to one 
who had once reigned in the heart of the queen, and who, in all her dis- 
grace, had always maintained a correspondence with her and had seemed 
to possess her entire friendship. To this might be added the obligations 
of her sufferings, which had led her over all Europe ; and although her 
travels might have tended to her glory, and have given her the means 
of triumphing over a thousand hearts, in respect to the queen they were 



UNDER RICHELTEtr AND JrAZARTN. 95 

age," that before all else she was a mother and a queen, that 
Madame de Chevreuse, passionate and frivolous as she was, no 
longer suited her, that she had never brought happiness to any 
one, and that by loading her with riches and honors, she would 
sufficiently acquit herself of her debt of gratitude. 

To do honor to her old friend, the queen sent La Roche- 
foucauld to meet her, but charged him to inform her of the 
new arrangements which she would find on her return. La 
Rochefoucauld had an earnest conversation with Anne of Aus- 
tria, in which he did every thing to win her back to Madame de 
Chevreuse : " I spoke to her," says he, " perhaps, more freely 
than I ought. I placed before her eyes the fidelity of Ma- 
dame de Chevreuse, her long services, and the harshness of the 

chains which should have bound her more strongly than in the past. 
But the aflfairs of this world cannot always remain in the same state, and 
this change natural to mankind caused Madame de Chevreiise, who was 
distrusted and vilified by those aspiring to the ministry, to find the 
queen changed in her absence, while this same change also caused the 
queen to find the duchess wanting in the charms which had formerly fas- 
cinated her. The sovereign had become more thoughtful and religious, 
while the favorite still retained her former tastes for gallantry and frivolity, 
which were bad accompaniments of a riper age. Her rivals had assured 
the queen that she wished to rule her, and the queen was so strongly im- 
pressed with this fear that, considering the prohibition of it which the 
king had made, she had some difficulty in resolving on the speedy return 
of the duchess ; this indeed was laudable in the queen, and should be re- 
spected. Madame the Princess, who Vated Madame de Chevreuse, and 
whose tastes were similar to those of the queen, had used every effort 
in her power to disgust her with her former favorite. Absence had in 
some measure served to weaken the duchess' hold upon the mind of the 
queen, while her presence had contributed much to her friendship with, 
or rather to accustom her to, Madame the Princess. However, when the 
distinguished exile arrived, the queen seemed rejoiced to see her, and 
treated her with favor. I had returned to the court a few days before. 
As soon as I had the honor of approaching the queen, I saw what were 
her sentiments towards Madame de Chevreuse, and I knew that the 
new minister bad exerted himself as much as possible to show her her 
faults." 



96 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

misfortunes which she had drawn upon herself. I entreated 
her to consider of what fickleness she would be thought capa- 
ble, and what interpretation would be given to this fickleness, 
should she prefer Cardinal Mazarin to Madame de Chevreuse. 
This conversation was long and stormy ; I saw clearly that I 
had incensed her."^ However, he went to meet the duchess 
on the road to Brussels, and encountered her at Roye. Mon- 
tagu had preceded him. La Rochefoucauld came in the name 
of the queen ; Montagu in the name of Mazarin, This was 
no longer the brilliant Montagu, the friend of Holland and of 
Buckingham and the impassioned cavalier of Madame de Chev- 
reuse, age had changed him also ; he had turned devotee, and 
he entered the church a few years after. He still remained 
attached to the object of his former adoration ; but before all 
else, he belonged to the queen, and conseqjiiently, to the in- 
terests of Mazarin.^ 

He came to place the homage of the prime minister at the 
feet of Madame de Chevreuse, and to strive to ally the old and 
the new favorites. La Rochefoucauld, always eager to assume 
a prominent character together with the air of a great politi- 
cian, asserts that he " entreated Madame de Chevreuse not to 
attempt to rule the queen at first, but simply to endeavor to 
regain the place in her heart and affections of which she had 
been deprived, and to place herself in a position some day to 
protect or to destroy the cardinal, according to circumstances 
and his future course of conduct." Madame de Chevreuse 
wished also to hear the counsels of another of her friends — ^less 
illustrious but more devoted — that Alexandre de Campion, 
whom she had known two years before at Brussels, and who, 

^ Memoires, ibid., p. 3*78. 

^ He had been on the side of Mazarin in the cabals which preceded 
the regency, and we find in the archives of foreign affairs, France, civ., 
the fragment of a letter from Montagu to the queen, without date, but 
written about this time, in which he pledges himself in a mystic language 
to turn a deaf ear to malcontents, and to remain attached to her ministry. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 97 

after the death of the Count de Soissons, had entered the ser- 
vice of the Yendomes, together with his brother Henri, an 
officer of tried courage. She invited Alexandre de Campion 
to come to meet her at Peronne, and he seems to have given 
her the same counsel as La Rochefoucauld, if we may judge 
from the note which he wrote to her at the end of May, before 
quitting Paris to rejoin her :^ " I do not know," says he, 
" what M. Montagu may negotiate with you, but I am certain 
that he will offer you money on the part of Cardinal Mazarin 
to pay your debts, and also that he has held out hopes to him 
of forming a firm friendship between you and him. I do not 
believe that he will find you strongly disposed to make this 
alliance, both because your best friends in France are not on 
very good terms with him, and because he seems leagued with 
the friends of the late cardinal. For my part, the counsel 
which I take the liberty of giving you on this subject is, that 
you do not take any decided resolution until you shall have 
seen the queen, by whose sentiments you will no doubt gladly 
shape your course, both on account of the zeal which you have 
for her and the friendship which she entertains for you. I am 
sure from my knowledge of your character that I shall have 
more trouble in holding you back than in urging you on, see- 
ing the friendship which you have done me the honor to con- 
fess to me for a certain person, (evidently Chateauneuf ;) but 
apart from this consideration and that of many other honor- 
able men embarked in the same cause, I do not see the neces- 
sity of perpetuating a hatred so far as even to carry it beyond 
the death of our enemies. I have no love for the cardinal, but 
I wish no harm to any of his race. After all, ^Madame, all 
that I can write is not the twentieth part of what I have to 
say to you ; and I dare assure you that at Peronne you will 
be as well informed of the prevailing feeling as if you were in 
Paris." Madame de Chevreuse listened to the counsels of her 

^ Hecueil, etc. 

6 



98 SECRET HISTOET OF THE FEEXCH COUET 

three friends and promised to follow them — and in fact, she 
did follow them, but in conformitv with her character and 
with the interests of the party whom she had long served and 
would not now abandon. As the queen showed much joy at 
seeing her again, she did not at once perceiTe the change 
which had taken place in her feelings, and she persuaded her- 
self that her constant presence would soon restore to her her 
former empire. 

The first thing that Madame de Cherreuse proposed was 
the return of Chateauneuf. La Rochefoucauld gives us here 
a portrait of the ex-keeper of the seals, somewhat flattering 
perhaps, but not at all exaggerated, in which he imperfectly 
discloses the plan of the government which his friends, the 
Importants, wished to give to France — the same which the 
earliest Frondeurs afterwards acknowledged, and still later, 
the friends of the Puke de Bourgogne, the last Importants of 
the seventeenth century : '* The good sense and the long po- 
litical experience of M. de Chateauneuf," says La Eochefou- 
cauld,^ " were well known to the queen. He had endured a 
rigorous imprisonment for having been in her interest ; he was 
firm, decisive, attached to the State, and more capable than 
any other in France of re-establishing the ancient system of 
government which Cardinal de Eichelieu had begun to destroy. 
He was, besides, intimately attached to 3Iadame de Chevreuse, 
and she well knew the surest methods of ruling him. She 
therefore urged his return with many entreaties." Chateau- 
neuf had already obtained permission to exchange the gloomy 
prison where he had pined for ten years for a sort of exile on 
one of his estates.' Madame de Chevreuse demanded the eud 

^ Ibid., p. 380. 

^ Archives of foreign affairs, France, vol. c, p. 135. Autograph let- 
ter of Chateauneuf to Chavigny, March 23, 1643, during the lifetime of 
Louis XIII., in which he "thanks him for the assistance -which he has lent 
his sister, Madame de Vaucelas, in attempting to release him from the 
rude and miserable condition in which he has been confined for ten 



rXDEE EICHTTT.TTrr AXD MAZAEES". 99 

of even this modified exile, and that she mio-ht a^ain see hire 
who had suffered so deeply for the queen and for herself. 
3Iazarin perceived that it "was necessary to grant this, but he 
yielded slowly, without seeming of himself to repulse Chateau- 
neuf, yet urging the necessity of managing the Condes, espe- 
cially Madame the Princes?, who, as we have already said, 
hated him as the judge of Henri de Montmorenci. Chateau- 
neuf was therefore recalled, but with this reserve, professedly 
accorded to the last wishes of the king, that he should not ap- 
pear at court, but remain at his estate of Montrouge, near 
Paris, where his friends could visit him. 

The question was how to transfer him thence to the minis- 
try. Chateauneuf was old, it is true, but neither his energy 
nor his ambition had abandoned him. and Madame de Chev- 
reuse regarded it as a debt of honor which she owed hira to re- 
place him in the office of keeper of the seals, which he had 
formerly filled and had lost for her sake, and which all the 
former friends of the queen saw with indignation in the hands 
of one of the most servile of the creatures of Richelieu, Pierre 
Seguier. Seguier was a very capable man, laborious, well-in- 
formed, full of resources, and with no character of his own, 
whose suppleness, joined with his ability, rendered him a con- 
venient and useful tool for a prime minister. His conduct in 
the trial of De Thou had made him odious. He had forced 
Monsieur to submit to an interrosration in this same affair; 



years, at an advanced age, and full of maladies "which have constantly 
tormented him." He was not released until the commencement of the 
regency. Ibid., p. 40-i : " Angoulesme, Mav 25, 1643. Sire, I rendex 
most humble thanks to your Majesty for the favor "vvhich she has been 
pleased to grant me after so long a detention, in permitting me to retire 
to one of my estates. The few days which remain to me shall be spent 
in praying to God for your Majesty that he may be pleased to grant 
her many years of happiness. These most devout supplications, Sire, are 
made for your Majesty by your most humble and obedient subject and 
servant, Chateauneuf.'' 



100 SECEET HISTORY OF THE FEENCH COUET 

and previous to this in the affair of 1637, he had not respected 
the asylum of the queen at the Yal-de-Grace. He had enrich- 
ed himself, and his fortune had procured illustrious alliances 
for his daughters. An outcry vpas raised against him, and his 
dismissal was demanded from every side. ' Two things saved 
him. First, his successor could not be agreed upon. Cha- 
teauneuf was the candidate of the Importants and of Madame 
de Chevreuse, but President Bailleul, the superintendent of 
the finances, coveted the place for himself, the Bishop de 
Beauvais feared such a colleague in the cabinet as Chateau- 
neuf, and the Condes opposed him. Then Seguier had a 
sister who was very dear to the queen, the Mother Jeanne, 
superior of the convent of the Carmelites of Pontoise. The 
virtues of the sister pleaded in favor of the brother, and 
Montagu, who was wholly devoted to the Mother Jeanne, 
warmly defended the keeper of the seals. 

Madame de Chevreuse, perceiving that it was almost im- 
possible to surmount so strong an opposition, took another 
road whereby to arrive at the same end ; she contented her- 
self with asking the smallest place in the cabinet for her 
friend, knowing that once there, Chateauneuf would know how 
to accomplish the rest, and to elevate his position. Presi- 
dent Bailleul, superintendent of the finances, having shown an 
inferior capacity for this place, it became necessary to give 
him a new assistant when the Count d'Avaux, with whom he 
shared the duties of the office, went to Munster.^ Madame de 
Chevreuse insinuated to the queen that she could easily intro- 
duce Chateauneuf into the council by appointing him the suc- 
cessor of D'Avaux, a modest position which could not excite 
the distrust of Mazarin ; but the latter understood the 
manoeuvre and baffled it. He easily persuaded the queen to 

* Garnet's Autographes de Mazarin, preserved at the Bihliotheque Na- 
tionale, ii. Garnet, p. 16. JVon faccia sua Maesfd sopraintendetite Cha- 
tonof, se non vuol, restabilirlo intieramente. 



UNDER EICHELLEU AND .^lAZAEIN. 101 

sustain Bailleul, who was chancellor of her household, and 
for whom she had a regard, by placing near him as controller- 
general the able D'Hemery, who afterwards superseded him. 
At the same time that she was thus laboring to extricate from 
disgrace the man on whom all her political hopes depended, 
Madame de Chevreuse, not daring to attack Mazarin openly, 
insensibly mined the earth about him and prepared his ruin. 
Iler practised eye enabled her easily to recognize the most fa- 
vorable point of attack in the assault which was to gain the 
surrender of the queen, and the watchword which she gave 
was to maintain and to heighten the general feeling of repro- 
bation which all the exiles, on returning to France, had excited 
and diffused against the memory of Richelieu. This feeling 
existed everywhere, — in the noble families, decimated or de- 
spoiled, in the Church, too sternly ruled not to be cruelly op- 
pressed, in the parliaments, reduced to a mere judiciary body 
above which they very much aspired — it was still living in 
the heart of the queen, who could not forget the deep humilia- 
tion to which she had been subjected by Richelieu, and the 
fate which he had probably held in store for her. These 
tactics succeeded ; a tempest rose on every side against vio- 
lence and tyranny, and consequently, against the creatures of 
Richelieu, which Mazarin had much trouble in abating./ 

Madame de Chevreuse then entreated the queen to repair 
the long misfortunes of the Vendomes by giving them either 
the admiralty, to which immense power was attached, or the 
government of Brittany, which the head of the family, Cesar 
de Vendome, had formerly possessed, and which he held by 
the authority of his father, Henri IV., and by inheritance 
from his step-father, the Duke de Mercoeiir. This was at 
once demanding the restoration of a friendly house, and the 

^ See La Jeunesse de Madame de Lo7igueville^ chap, iii., p. 216: the 
letter written by Mazarin concerning this to the Duke de Breze, May 
28, 1643. 



102 SECEET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

ruin of the two families which had most served Kichelieu, and 
could best sustain Mazarin. The Marshal de La Meilleraie, 
grand master of the artillery, and recently invested with the 
government of Brittany, was a warrior of authority, and in 
possession of several regiments. The Duke Maille de Breze, 
step-brother of Bichelieu, was also a marshal, and governor of 
the important province of Anjou; and his son, Armand de 
Breze, then at the head of the admiralty, passed already, 
despite his youth, for the first sailor of his time. Mazarin 
warded off the blow aimed at him by the duchess by force of 
address and patience ; never refusing, always eluding, and 
calling to his aid his great ally, as he styled it, Time. Before 
the return of Madame de Chevreuse, he had himself endeav- 
ored to gain the Vendomes, and to attach them to his interest. 
At the death of Richelieu, he had contributed much to their 
recall, and had since made them every kind of advances, but 
he €oon perceived that he could not satisfy them except by 
ruining himself. The Duke Cesar de Yendome, son of Plenri 
IV. and the Duchess de Beaufort, had early made the most 
lofty pretensions, and had shown himself as turbulent and 
factious as a legitimate prince. His life had been passed in 
rebellions and conspiracies, and in 1641 he had been forced to 
fly to England on the charge of an attempt to assassinate 
Kichelieu. He did not return to France until after the 
death of the cardinal, and, as may well be imagined, he 
breathed nothing but vengeance against his memory. "" He 
had much spirit," says Madame de Motteville, " and that was 
all the good that could be said of him." '■ To the ambition of 
the Vendomes, Mazarin skilfully opposed that of the Condes, 
who did not wish the aggrandizement of a house too near their 
own. They also owed it to themselves to sustain the Brezes, 
who had become their relatives by the marriage of Claire 
Clemence Maille de Breze, daughter of the duke and sister of 

' Yol. i., p. 126. 



UNDEK EICHELIEU AND MAZAKIN. 103 

the young and valiant admiral, with the, Duke d'Enghien ; so 
that Mazarin had little trouble in retaining the command of 
the fleet and of the principal maritime towns of France in 
faithful hands. But it was very difficult to preserve Brittany 
to the Meilleraies against the claims of a son of Henri IV., 
who had formerly possessed it, and who claimed it as a sort 
of family property. Mazarin therefore resigned himself to 
the sacrifice of La Meilleraie, but first he made it of the least 
possible value. He persuaded the queen to assume to herself 
the government of Brittany, and to appoint a lieutenant-gen- 
eral, evidently commissioned over the Vendomes, who should 
reside with La Meilleraie. The latter could not be offended 
at being second to the queen ; and to arrange every thing so 
as to fally satisfy a personage of such consequence, Mazarin 
asked for him the title of duke which the late king had prom- 
ised him, together with the reversion of the grand mastership 
of the artillery for his son — the same son to whom he after- 
wards gave with his name, his own niece, the beautiful Hor- 
tense. 

Mazarin was much less inclined to favor the Duke de Ven- 
dome, as he then had a dangerous rival with the queen in his 
younger son, the Duke de Beaufort, who was youthful, brave, 
possessing every appearance of loyalty and chivalry, and af- 
fecting a passionate devotion for Anne of Austria which was 
not at all displeasing to her. A few days before the death of 
the king, she had placed her children in his care. This mark 
of confidence inflated his vanity :; he conceived hopes which 
he disclosed too plainly and which finally oflfended the queen, 
while at the same time to heighten his inconsistency, he as- 
sumed the chains of the beautiful but notorious Duchess de 
Montbazon. Besides, Beaufort did not even possess the sem- 
blance of a statesman ; he had little talent, no secrecy, was 
incapable of application or of business, and only fit for soine 
daring and violent deed. La Rochefoucauld portrays him 



104 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

thus : ^ " The one who had conceived the greatest hopes was 
the Duke de Beaufort ; he had long been warmly attached to 
the queen. She had just given him a public token of her es- 
teem by confiding the Dauphin and the Duke d'Anjou to his 
care on the day that the king received the extreme unction. 
The Duke de Beaufort, on his part, availed himself of this dis- 
tinction and of his other advantages to bring himself into favor 
by afi'ecting to believe that she was already firmly established 
in the government. He was large, well-made, enduring, and 
skilled in all kinds of exercises ; he was haughty and auda- 
cious, but artificial in every thing and very unreliable ; his wit 
was heavy and unpolished, though he often attained his ends 
through the artifice of his blunt manners ; he was envious and 
malicious, and his valor, though great, was unequal." Betz 
does not, like La Bochefoucauld, accuse Beaufort of artifice, 
but he represents him as a presumptuous egotist of marked 
incapacity : ^ " M. de Beaufort had not even comprehended the 
idea of great designs, he had only aspired to them ; he had 
heard them discussed among the Importants and had retained 
some of their jargon, and this, mixed with the expressions 
which he bad borrowed verbatim from Madame de Yendome,^ 
formed a language which would have disfigured even the good 
sense of a Cato. His own was dull and scanty, and was also 
rendered more obscure by his conceit. He fancied himself 
able, and this it was that made him seem artful, for it is well 
known that he had not mind enough for intrigue. He pos- 
sessed much personal courage, more, in fact, than often belongs 
to a blusterer." This portrait, exaggerated as it is after the 
manner of Betz, is nevertheless tolerably faithful ; but at the 
beginning of the regency in 1643, the faults of the Duke de 

' Ibid., p. 372. 
^ Vol. i., p. 216. 

^ Madame de Vendome was a person of exalted piety, and who al- 
ways spoke in the language of devotion. 



FNDEE EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 105 

Beaufort were not thus openly known, and tliey seemed to be 
eclipsed by his virtues. The queen only lost her liking for 
him by degrees. In the beginning of her friendship for him, 
she had offered him the place of grand-equerry, which had 
been vacant since the death of Cinq-Mars, and which would 
bring him in daily contact with her.^ Beaufort had the folly 
to refuse this position, hoping for a better one ; then, too late 
repenting his refusal, he asked it again, but in vain. The 
more his favor diminished, the more his irritation increased ; 
and it was not long before he placed himself at the head of the 
enemies of the cardinal. 

Madame de Chevreuse hoped to be more successful in 
asking the government of Havre for quite a different person- 
age, of tried fidelity and the finest and rarest talents. La 
Bochefoucauld. She would thus have recompensed him for 
his services to the queen and to herself^ have strengthened 
and enriched one of the chiefs of the party of the Importants, 
and have weakened Mazarin by taking an important command 
from a person of whom he was sure, the Duchess d'Aiguillon, 
niece of Bichelieu. The cardinal succeeded in saving her 
without seeming to int,erfere in the matter. " This lady," 
says Madame de Motteville, " who, through her fine qualities, 
in many things surpassed ordinary women, knew so well how 
to defend her cause that she persuaded the queen that it was 
necessary for her own interests that she should leave her in 
command of this important place, saying that, having now none 
but enemies in France, her only safety and refuge was in the 
protection of her Majesty, who would always be the mistress 
of it ; that, on the contrary, he to whom they wished her to 
give this government had too much talent, that he was capable 
of ambitious designs, and on the least discontent might join 
himself to some factious party, and that it was important for 

^ Mazariu himself gives us this fact, which has been hitherto ignored, 
ii. Garnet, pp. 72, 73. 

5* 



106 SECRET HISTOEY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

the good of the State that she should keep this place under 
her own control for the king. The tears of a woman who had 
once been so proud moved the queen, who, after having 
reflected on her reasons, deemed it proper to leave things as 
they were." ' It was Mazarin doubtless who suggested to the 
Duchess d'Aiguillon the sound and politic reasons which 
persuaded the queen, so well do they accord with the lan- 
guage which he continually holds towards her in his Garnets. 
Madame de Motteville says that he " confirmed her in her 
inclination to preserve Havre to the Duchess d'Aiguillon." 
Here, as in many other things, the art of Mazarin consisted in 
seeming simply to confirm the queen in the resolutions which 
he himself had suggested. 

Observe that it is not we who attribute these various 
designs, this judicious and logical course of policy, to Madame 
de Chevreuse, but La Rochefoucauld, who ought to be cor- 
rectly informed on the matter — indeed, he attributes it to 
her both in her own afi'airs and in that of the Venddmes.'^ 
Mazarin was not deceived by her; and more than once we 
read in his private notes these words : " My greatest enemies 
are the Yendomes, and Madame de Chevreuse who animates 
them." He also informs us that she had formed the design 
of marrying her daughter, the beautiful Charlotte, then 
sixteen years of age,* to the Duke de Mercoeur, the eldest 
son of the Duke de Yendome, while his brother Beaufort 
was to have espoused the noble and amiable Mademoiselle 
d'Epernon, who, baffling these and many more brilliant 
schemes, buried herself at twenty-four in a convent of the 
Carmelites.* These marriages, which would have allied, 
strengthened, and united so many noble houses already but 



^ Yol. i., p. 136. 

= Ibid., pp. 380-384. 

*• Charlotte Marie de Lorraine was born in 1627. 

* La Jeunesse de Madame de Longueville, chap, i., pp. 99-105. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 107 

indifferently attached to the queen and to her minister, 
alarmed the successor of Richelieu, and he persuaded the 
queen to break them off secretly, finding trouble enough 
already from the marriage of the beautiful Mademoiselle 
de Vendome with the brilliant and restless Duke de Nemours/ 
When we follow attentively the details of the opposing 
intrigues of Madame de Chevreuse and of Mazarin, we know 
not to which to award the prize for skill, for sagacity, and for 
address. Mazarin knew how to make sacrifices enough to 
avoid making too many of them, treating everybody with 
circumspection, suffering no one to despair, promising a great 
deal, performing as little as possible, and lavishing homage 
and attentions upon Madame de Chevreuse herself, without 
ever deceiving himself as to her real sentiments. She, on her 
part, paid him back in the same coin. La Rochefoucauld 
says, that at this early period Madame de Chevreuse and 
Mazarin coquetted with each other. Madame de Chevreuse, 
who had always mingled coquetry with politics, seems to have 
essayed the power of her charms on the cardinal. The latter 
did not fail to lavish gallant words on her, and " even some- 
times endeavored to make her believe that she inspired him 
with love." These are the precise words of La Rochefou- 
cauld. There were some other women, too, who would not 
have been sorry to have won a little admiration from the 
prime minister. Among these was the Princess de Guymene, 
one of the most celebrated beauties of the French court, and 
not of a savage humor. She and her husband were friendly 
to Mazarin, despite all the efforts of Madame de Montbazon 
and Madame de Chevreuse, her mother and sister-in-law. It 
was evident, indeed, that Mazarin was very attentive to 
Madame de G-ujmene, and that he did not scruple to offer 
her, as well as Madame de Chevreuse, a thousand compli- 
ments; but he went no further, and the two beautiful women 

^ 1st Garnet, p. 112. 



108 SECRET HISTOEY OF THE FREIs^CH COURT 

knew not what to think of so many flatteries and so much 
reserve. They sometimes jestingly asked each other which 
of the two he wanted; and as he made no advances, thouo-h 
all the while continuing his gallant protestations, " these 
ladies," says Mazarin, "conclude thence that I am impo- 
tent.'" 

This play lasted some time, but ended naturally on being 
carried into politics. Madame de Chevreuse grew impatient 
at obtaining nothing but words instead of any thing tangible 
and decisive. She had received a little money for herself 
either in reimbursement of that which she had formerly loanec' 
the queen, as we have seen in the preceding chapter,^ or fc 
the acquittal of the debts contracted during her exile and in 
the interest of Anne of Austria. At an early period, she 
had taken her friend and proteg^, Alexandre de Campion, 
from the service of the Vendomes to place him in a suitable 
position in the household of the queen.^ Chateauneuf had 
been reinstated in his office of chancellor of the royal orders, 
and his former government of Touraine was afterwards restored 
to him, after the death of the Marquis de Gevres, who was 
slain in the month of August, before Thionville.* But 



III, Carnet, p. 39, "/S'i esamina la mia vita e si conclude che io sia 
impotentey 

"" See Chapter II. 

^ Recueil, etc., letter of oune 12, 1643 : "I am now with the queen, 
who honors me by treating me with favor. I have all the entrees, and 
she has also bestowed a gift on me from which I have hopes of receiving 
nearly a hundred thousand crowns. Madame de Chevreuse, who is 
friendly with her, continues the confidence which she has always shown 
me." 

* II. Carnet, p. 22 : Journal of Ohvier d'Orraesson, under the date of 
Aug. 30, 1643 ; and among the Lettres frangaises of Mazarin, preserved 
at the' Bihliotheque Mazarine, that of the 13th of August, in which the 
cardinal announces to Chateauneuf that the queen restores to him the 
government of Touraine. Another letter of January 2, 1644, terms him 
M. the Count de Chateauneuf, chancellor of the royal orders and gov- 
ernor of Toui'aine. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 109 

Madame de Chevreuse considered that this was doing but little 
for a man of the talent of Chateauneuf, who had staked his 
fortune and his life, and had suffered an imprisonment of ten 
years in the service of the queen. She perceived clearly that 
the perpetual postponement of the favors constantly promised 
to the Yendomes and to La Rochefoucauld, and as constantly 
deferred, were but so many artifices of the cardinal, and that 
she was his dupe ; she complained loudly of this treatment, 
and began to indulge in bitter and sarcastic expressions 
against him. This was furnishing Mazarin with weapons 
against herself He impressed the queen with the idea that 
Madame de Chevreuse wished to rule her, that she had but 
changed her mask and not her character, and that she was 
still the passionate and restless person who, with all her wit 
and her devotion, had never brought any thing but evil to the 
queen, and was only capable of ruining others and of destro}^. 
ing herself By degrees, secret and hidden as it was, war 
was declared between them more openly. Rochefoucauld 
has admirably depicted the commencement and progress of this 
curious contest. The Garnets of Mazarin throw a new light 
on the subject, and infinitely exalt the talents of Madame 
de Chevreuse by showing to what degree Mazarin dreaded 
her. 

Everywhere he regards her as the real chief of the party 
of the Importants. " It is Madame de Chevreuse," says he, 
unceasingly, ^' who animates them all."— '' She studies to 
strengthen the Yendomes, she endeavors to gain all the house 
of Lorraine, she has already gained the Duke de Guise, and 
through him, she is attempting to win from me the Duke 
d'Elbeuf "— " She has a clear perception of everything; she 
readily divines that it is I who am acting in secret on the 
queen to hinder her.from restoring the government of Brittany 
to the Duke de Yendome. She has said so to her father, the 
Duke de Montbazon, and also to Montagu."—" She quarrels 
with Montagu himself because he opposes Chateauneuf by sus- 



110 SECEET HISTOKT OF THE FEENCH COUET 

taming Seguier, the present keeper of the seals." — " Madame 
de Chevreuse is not discouraged. She says that the affairs 
of Chateauneuf are not yet desperate, and that she asks but 
three months to show what she can do. She entreats the 
Vendomes to have patience, and sustains them by promising 
them a speedy change of scene." — " Madame de Chevreuse 
still hopes to cause my dismissal. The reason which she 
assigns for this is that when the queen refused to place Cha- 
teauneuf at the head of the government, she told her that she 
could not do it at present on my account, whence Madame de 
Chevreuse has concluded that the queen has much esteem and 
affection for Chateauneuf, and that when I am no longer there, 
the place is assured to her friend. From this arise the hopes 
and illusions which they cherish." — " The art of Madame de 
Chevreuse and the rest of the Importants consists in hindering 
the queen from hearing any conversation but that which is fa- 
vorable to their party and directed against me, and in rendering 
every one suspicious to her who does not belong to them and 
who expresses any regard for me." — " Madame de Chevreuse 
and her friends openly assert that the queen will soon recall 
Chateauneuf, and by this they deceive everybody and induce 
those who are thinking of their future to go to him and to 
seek his friendship. They excuse the queen for the delay 
which she makes in giving him my place by saying that she 
still has need of me for some time longer." — " It is told me 
that Madame de Chevreuse secretly guides Madame de Vendome, 
(a devotee who had much influence with the bishops and the 
convents,) and gives her instructions so that she may act 
rightly, and that all the machines employed against me. may 
work well towards accomplishing their end." ^ 

This last passage proves that Madame de Chevreuse, with- 
out being religious herself in the slightest degree, knew well 
how to avail herself of the party of devotees, which powerfully 

^ II. Carnet, pp. 65, 68, lb ; III. Ibid., pp. 11, 19, 25, 29, 44. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. Ill 

influenced the mind of Anne of Austria and gave Mazarin 
much anxiety. 

The chief difficulty of the prime minister lay in making 
Queen Anne — the sister of the king of Spain and herself pos- 
sessing true Spanish piety — comprehend that it was absolutely 
necessary that, despite the engagements she had so often con- 
tracted, despite the urgent entreaties of the Court of Rome, 
and despite the solicitations of the chiefs of the episcopate, 
she should continue the alliance with Holland and the German 
Protestants, and persist in insisting on a general peace to be 
shared by our allies as well as ourselves, while the devotees 
were constantly repeating to her that she could make a partial 
peace and treat separately with Spain on most favorable terms, 
and that the scandal of an impious war between His Most 
Christian Majesty and the Catholic king would thus cease, 
and a much -needed relief be obtained for France. This was 
the policy of the former party of the queen. It was specious 
at least, and reckoned numerous partisans among the most en- 
lightened and patriotic men. Mazarin, the disciple and heir 
of Kichelieu., entertained higher thoughts which he was not 
yet willing to confide to_Anne of Austria. He realized them 
by degrees, thanks to efforts unceasingly renewed and managed 
with infinite art ; thanks most of all, to the victories of the 
Duke d'Enghien — for in every thing there is no more eloquent 
and persuasive advocate than success. However, the queen 
remained long undecided, and we see in the Garnets of Mazarin 
about the end of May, and through the months of June and 
July, that the great aim of the cardinal was to induce the re- 
gent not to abandon her allies, but to continue the war. 
Madame de Chevreuse, with Chateauneuf, defended the former 
policy of the party, and labored to win Anne of Austria back 
to it. " Madame de Chevreuse," says Mazarin, " causes it to 
be reported to the queen from every side that I do not wish for 
peace, that I have the same maxims as the Cardinal de Kiche- 
lieu, and that to make a separate peace is both necessary and 



112 SECRET HISTOET OF THE FEENCH COURT 

easy." He remonstrated often and earnestly against the dangers 
of such an arrangement, which would render useless the sacri- 
fices of France during so many years. " Madame de Chevreuse 
wishes to ruin France ! " he exclaims. He knew that, inti- 
mately allied with Monsieur, her former accomplice in every 
conspiracy plotted against Richelieu, she had persuaded him 
to the idea of a separate peace by holding out hopes to him 
of the marriage of his daughter. Mademoiselle de Montpensier, 
with the archduke, which would have obtained him the govern- 
ment of the Netherlands. He knew that she still retained all 
her influence over the Duke of Lorraine ; and the Marshal de 
L'Hopital, who commanded on that frontier, sent him word to 
distrust all the protestations of the Duke Charles, as he be- 
longed wholly to Madame de Chevreuse. He knew lastly 
that she boasted of being able to effect a speedy peace through 
the Queen of Spain, whom she had at her disposal. He there- 
fore entreated Queen Anne to repulse every proposal of 
Madame de Chevreuse, and to tell her plainly that she would 
not listen to any private arrangement, that she was deter- 
mined not to separate herself from her allies, that she should 
insist on a general peace, that it was for this that she had 
sent ministers to Munster who were negotiating this impor- 
tant affair, and that it was useless to say any thing further on 
the subject.^ 

Repulsed at all these different points, Madame de. Chev- 
reuse would not yet own herself beaten. Seeing that she had 
employed insinuation, flattery, artifice, and every ordinary 
court intrigue in vain, her daring spirit did not recoil from 
the idea of resorting to other means of success. She con- 
tinued to use the devotees and the bishops, and carried on her 
political plots with the chiefs of the Importants, while at the 
same time she attracted together that little cabal which 
formed in some sort the vanguard of the party, composed of 

' III. Carnet, pp. 27, 43, 66. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 113 

men mirtured in the old intrigues, and accustomed to and 
always ready for surprises, who in former times had been en- 
gaged in more than one desperate enterprise against Richelieu, 
and who, in an extreme case, could be incited against Mazarin 
also. The memoirs of the time, particularly those of Ret.-? 
and of La Rochefoucauld, describe them well. There were 
the Count de Montresor, the Count de Fontraiiles, the Count 
de Brion, the Count de Fiesque, the Count d'Aubijoux, the 
Count de Beaupuis, the Count de Saint-Ybar, Barriere, Yari- 
carville, and many others beside, — impracticable spirits, in- 
trepid hearts, of an unbounded jQdelity to their cause and to 
their friends, professing the most ultra maxims, with a sort of 
worship for the unfortunate De Thou, continually invoking 
ancient Rome and Brutus, mingling amorous intrigues with 
all these, and urging themselves on in all their chimeras by 
the desire of pleasing the ladies. They gained the name of 
the Importants by their consequential airs, their affectation 
of ability and profundity, and their mysterious language.^ 
Their chief favorite was the Duke de Beaufort, whom we 
already know, a personage of nearly the same stamp with 
themselves, made up at once of extravagance and of artifice, 
but professing great loyalty and devotion, and giving himself 
out as a man of action, and who, moreover, was wholly ruled by 
Madame de Montbazon, the youthful mother-in-law of Madame 
de Chevreuse. The former mistress of Chalais had no diflS.- 
culty in gaining this little faction. She flattered it adroitly, 
while, with the art of a practised conspirator, she fomented 

^ To the well-known portraits of the Importants left us by Retz and 
La Rochefoucauld, may be added the following lines of Alexandre de 
Campion : — Recueil. " I have some friends who have not all the prudence 
that might be desired ; they affect a passion for honor, and give to vir- 
tue so strange a garb, that it seems to me disguised ; so that, though 
they may possess all its essential qualities, they use them so badly that 
the applause which they gain thereby, leads, perhaps, only to their de- 
sti'uction." 



114 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

its spirit of false honor, of transcendental devotion, and of ex- 
travagant courage. Mazarin, who, like Richelieu, had an 
admirable police, warned by it of the movements of Madame 
de Chevreuse, understood the danger to which he was exposed. 
He well knew that she had not joined herself without design 
to men like these. He was perfectly informed of every thing 
that was said and done in their cabals. " They talk only among 
themselves of generosity and devotion," says he, in the notes 
which he wrote for the queen and himself; " they repeat with- 
out ceasing that one must know how to sacrifice himself for 
his cause; and it is Madame de Chevreuse who sustains and 
strengthens them in maxims so dangerous to the State." — • 
" Saint- Ybar (one of those who, with Montresor and Yaricar- 
ville, had proposed to Monsieur and to Count de Soissons to 
rid them of Richelieu) is extolled by Madame de Chevreuse 
as a hero." — " Visit of Campion, a devoted servant of the 
lady." — " Madame de Chevreuse wishes to purchase one of 
the isles of the Loire in order to establish Campion on it, and 
to go there from time to time to have a secret interview with 
the Spanish agent, Sarmiento." — " Madame de Chevreuse 
animates them all. She says that, if they do not resolve to 
rid themselves of me, affairs will never be any better, that 
the nobles will be quite as much enthralled as formerly, that 
my power with the queen will continually increase, and that 
it is necessary to hasten to bring matters to a crisis before the 
Duke d'Enghien returns from the army."^ 

One could not be better informed, and the plan of Madame 

^ II. Carnet, p. 70 :".... Si predica siempre que es menester per- 
die Be." — Ibid., p. 83 : " Saint -Ibar portato dalla damacome un eroe." — 
III. Ibid., pp. 5, 24, 25 : " Que los majores encmigos que yo tenia 
eran los Vandomos et la dama que li anima todos, diciendo que se no si 
teneria luogo la resolucion de deshacerse de my, los negotios (no) irian 
bien, los grandes serian tan sujetos come antes, y yo siempre mas po- 
deria con la reyna, y que era menester darse prima antes que Anghien 
concluviesse." 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARHT. 115 

de Cheyreuse and the chiefs of the Importants was clearly laid 
open to the eyes of Mazarin ; either by their incessant and 
skilfully concerted intrigues about the queen to cause her to 
abandon a minister for whom she had not yet openly declared 
herself, or to treat this minister as Luynes had treated the 
Marshal d'Ancre, and as Montresor, Barriere, and Saint- Ybar 
had wished to treat Kichelieu, The first part of the plan 
being unsuccessful, they began to think seriously of the sec- 
ond, and Madame de Chevreuse, the true head of the party, 
judiciously proposed to act before the return of the Duke d'En- 
ghien, as the duke would protect Masarin if at Paris ; it was 
necessary, therefore, to profit by his absence to strike the deci- 
sive blow. Success seemed certain and even easy. They were 
sure of the people, who, wasted by a long war, and groaning 
beneath the weight of taxes, would joyfully welcome the hope 
of peace. They could count on the open support of the par- 
liament, burning to regain that importance in the state which 
Richelieu had wrested from them, and which Mazarin dis- 
puted with them. They had the entire secret, and even pub- 
lic, sympathies of the episcopate, which, with Rome, detest- 
ed the Protestant and demanded the Spanish alliance. 
They could not doubt the eager concurrence of the aris- 
tocracy, which still regretted its ancient and turbulent in- 
dependence, and whose most illustrious descendants, the Yen- 
domes, the Guises, the Bouillons, the Bochefoucaulds, were 
avowedly opposed to the rule of a foreign favorite, without for- 
tune, without family, and as yet without glory. Even the 
princes of the blood resigned themselves to rather than loved 
Mazarin ; Monsieur did not pride himself on an extreme fidel- 
ity to his friends, and the politic Prince de Conde would think 
twice on the subject before embroiling himself with the victors. 
He flattered all the parties by turns, but was only attached to 
his own interests, llis son would act with his father, and 
they could gain him by loading him with honors. The next 
day there would be no resistance, and the day itself, scarce any 



116 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FKENCH COURT 

opposition. The Italian regiments of Mazarin were with the 
army ; there were searcelj any troops in Paris, except the reg- 
iments of the guards, of which nearly all the commanders, 
Chandenier, Treville, and La Ohatre, were devoted to the 
party. The queen herself had not yet renounced her former 
friendship. Even her prudence was misinterpreted. As she 
wished to be politic towards all and to satisfy all, she gave good 
words to everybody, and these good words were taken as tacit 
encouragements. She had not hitherto shown any great 
strength of character ; though they believed indeed that she 
had some liking for the cardinal, and did not doubt the in- 
creasing force of an attachment of some months' standing. 

On his side, Mazarin did not deceive himself. He could 
not yet have been master of the heart of Anne of Austria, 
since at this time, that is, during the month of July, 1643, he 
shows extreme disquietude in his most confidential notes. The 
dissimulation with which every one accused the queen alarmed 
him, and we see him pass through all the alternations of hope 
and of fear. It is curious to seize and follow the varying emo- 
tions of his soul. In his official letters to the generals and am- 
bassadors,' he affects a security which he does not feel ; with 
his intimate friends, he lets escape something of his perplexi- 
ties, and they appear in his Garnets without disguise. In these 
we read the troubles of his mind in his passionate entreaties 
that the queen should declare herself. He feigns the most en- 
tire disinterestedness towards her, and only asks to give place 
to Chateauneuf if she has for him any secret preference. The 
ambiguous conduct of Anne of Austria drives him to despair, 
and he conjures her either to permit him to retire, or openly to 
declare herself iu his favor. 

" Every one says that Her Majesty has formed engage- 

* See the valuable collection of French and Italian letters of Mazarin 
*Defore cited, 5 vols, in fol., proceeding from Colbert, which are now in 
-^e Bibliothegue Mazarine, Letters of 1642-1645, 1719, C. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZ^RIN. 11 Y 

ments with Cliateauneuf. If this be true, let her Majesty tell 
me so. If she prefers to intrust her affairs to hina, I will retire 
whenever she wishes." ^ — " They say that her Majesty is the 
greatest dissembler living, that no one can confide in her, 
that, if she seems to set any value on me, it is from sheer ne- 
cessity, and that all her real confidence is in them." ^ — " If her 
Majesty wishes to retain me and to be benefited by me, she 
must throw off the mask, and give manifest tokens of the value 
that she sets on me." ' — "I seek only the pleasure and the satis- 
faction of her majesty, but truth forces me to say that I can- 
not serve her as I ought with this perpetual anxiety, though I 
labor night and day to fulfil my duties." * — *' It is certain that the 
ImportaDts continue to assemble in the garden of the Tuile- 
ries, that those who style themselves the most devoted ser- 
vants of the queen cry out against her government, that they 
are more than ever opposed to me, and always conclude by 
saying that, if they cannot destroy me by intrigue, they will 
attempt other means." * — " 1 receive a thousand warnings to take 
care of myself." ® — " They inveigh against the queen more than 
ever. They are furious against Beringhen and Montagu. 
They say that the first practises a vile trade, and that they 
will give the second a beating ; and that it is absolutely neces- 
sary to destroy all who are my friends."^ — " I am told that 



^ 11. Garnet, pp. 21, 22 

"^ Ibid., p. 42. 

' Ibid., p. 65: " Sy S. M. quiere conservarme demanera que puede 
ser de provechio a su servitio, es menester quitarse la maschera, y azer 
obras que declarase la protection que quiere tener de mi persona." 

* Ibid., p. '77: "Es imposibile servire con estos sobresaltos, mientras 
trovajo di dia y de noche per complir a mis obligationes." 

* Ibid., p. 76 : "Es sierto que continuan juntarse al jardin de Tulliori 
que ablan contra el gobierno de la reyna los que se diceu sus majores 
serbidores, y que son contra my mas que nunca, hasta concluir siemj)re 
que sy per cabalas no podrano destruirme, intentaran otros modos." 

® Ibid. p. 93 : " Ricevo mille avvisi di guardarmi." 

' III. Ibid., p. 18 : "Los Importautes ablan contra la reyna mas que 



118 SECRET HISTOEY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

there are so many incensed against me that it is impossible for 
me to avoid some great misfortune." ^ 

He declares that he would retire willingly, if, by so doing, 
he believed that he could cause the storm to cease. " Ah ! " 
exclaims he, " if the sea could be appeased by my sacrifice, I 
would cast myself into ifc as Jonah cast himself into the mouth 
of the whale." ^ He philosophizes sadly on the extreme diffi- 
culty of governing men, and especially Frenchmen, by reason 
and by the love of the public good. He consoles himself with 
the thought that he has not served France badly. In the begin- 
ning of his ministry, on the twenty-third of May, he had said 
to the queen : " Let her Majesty trust me during three months, 
and then let her do as she chooses." ^ Three months had not 
yet passed by, and France, victorious at E-ocroy, was on the point 
of wresting from Austria the town which guarded the passage 
of the Khine. Beyond the Alps, she was the arbiter of the 
differences of the Italian princes ; the Pope himself recognized 
her mediation, despite the opposition of Spain; and in Eng- 
land, the king and parliament alike addressed themselves to 
her, to obtain her support.* Yet the chief author of this 
prosperity was calumniated, outraged, and menaced ; and he 
knew not whether some officer of the guards or some one of 

nunca. Estan desperados contra Belingan y Montagu ; dicen que el 
primero es un alcahuete (maquereau), y que all' otro daron mil palos ; 
que es menoster perder todos los que fueran de mi parte." 

^ Garnet, p. 24 : " Que muchas personas eran de mauera animadas 
contra my (^ue era imposibile que no me succediesse algun gran md." 

^ II. Ibid., p. 76 : " Sy la mar puede sosegarse con echarmi como 
Jonas en la bocea de la balena." 

2 I. Ibid., p. 108. 

* III. Ibid., p. 65 : " La riputazione della Francia non e in cattivo sta- 
te, poiche, oltre li progressi che d^ per tutto fanno le armi sue, e arbitra 
S. M. delle difTerenze dei principi d'ltalia, e di quelle del re d'lnghiltera 
con il parlamento, non obstante che li Spagnuoli faccino il possibile e 
combattino per ogni verso questa quality, sino a minacciare il papa se ad- 
herisce alii sentimenti et aUi mediazione di Francia." 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 119 

iht enthusiasts whom Madame de Chevreuse held at her dis- 
posal, was not reserving for him the fate of the Marshal d'An- 
cre At the end of the month of June, he speaks in a letter 
to l]is friend, the Cardinal Bichy, justas he soliloquizes in the 
Carngts. " Every one sees," says he, " that I spare no fatigue, 
and that the crown has no more zealous, faithful, and disinter- 
ested subject than myself; yet I still think of returning to my 
own country when I can do so without being untrue to myself, 
to my duties, or to France ; for although all my designs are 
good, although I protest that there is not one which has not 
for its object the glory of her Majesty, yet I unceasingly en- 
counter a thousand obstacles and foresee greater ones yet in 
the future, the French having no real attachment to the good 
of the state, and holding all those in abhorrence who place it 
above their private nterests. Thus, I confess it to your emi- 
nence, I pass a most unhappy life, and were it not for the 
goodness of the queen, who gives me a thousand proofs of af- 
fection, I would endure it no longer." ^ 

Nothing was changed at the end of July and in the begin- 
ning of the month of August, 1643, or rather, every thing was 
aggravated; the violence of the Importants increased daily; 
and though tie queen defended her minister, yet she also 
treated with his enemies, and hesitated to take the decided at- 
titude which Mazarin demanded of her, not only for his pri- 
vate interest, but also for that of the government. All at once 
an incident, seemingly insignificant at first, but gradually grow- 
ing in importance, hastened the inevitable crisis, and forced 
the queen openly to declare herself, and Madame de Chevreuse 
to plunge still deeper into the fatal enterprise which had al- 
ready entere^d her mind — we speak of the quarrel of Madame 
de Montbazon and Madame de Longueville.^ 



^ Jibliotheque Mazarine. Italian letters of Mazarin, fol. 181 : "30 
giugno 1643." 

^ See La Jeunesse de Madame d Longueville, chap, iii., p. 225. 



120 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FREXCH COURT 

"We have recounted this quarrel in detail elsewhere, and 
both ladies are known to the reader. Let us only observe that 
the Duchess de Montbazon, by her marriage with the father of 
Madame de Chevreuse, found herself the mother-in-law of |Ia- 
rie de Rohan, although younger than she, that the Duke de 
Beaufort was publicly a sort of attending cavalier to her, that 
the Duke de Guise paid her a very welcome court, and that 
she was thus allied on all sides to the Importants. jlmong 
her numerous lovers, she had counted the Duke de Longaeville, 
whom she would gladly have retained, but who had just es- 
caped her by espousing Mademoiselle de Bourbon. This mar- 
riage had greatly irritated the vain and selfish ducless ; she 
detested Madame de Longueville, and blindly seized the first 
occasion which presented itself of carrying trouble into this 
new household. One evening, in her salon of the Eue de Be- 
th izy or the Bue Barbette,' sh« picked up one or two letters 
in a woman's hand which some imprudent person |iad just let 
fall. With these she amused the whole company./ The mean- 
ing of these letters was but too clear, and efforts vere made to 
discover the author. The Duchess de Montbazoi dared to at- 
tribute them to Madame de Longueville. This ^candalous ru- 
mor spread rapidly, and the indignation of the Ijotel de Coude 
may be imagined. Madame the Princess loujtily demanded 
justice of the queen; and a reparation was exac|;ed and agreed 
upon. The Duchess de Montbazon, forced to consent, apol- . 
ogized, but with a bad grace. A few days ajfter, the queen 
having gone with Madame the Princess to the garden of Be- 
nard to a collation given her by Madame de Chevreuse, she 
found Madame de Montbazon there, and, when she entreated 
her to find some pretext for retiring in order to avoid a ren- 
contre with Madame the Princess, the insolent duchess refused 
to obey. This offence, offered to the queen herself, could not 
remain unpunished, and the next day Madame de Montbazon 

^ For the hotel de Montbazon, see Sauval, vol. ii., p. 124. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 121 

received an order to quit the court and repair to one of lier 
estates near Rochefort. The friends and admirers of the lady 
uttered loud complaints ; the whole party of Importants were 
roused, and the affair changed its aspect ; from a private it 
became a general quarrel, as often in war a private engage- 
ment or a precipitate manoeuvre involves a whole army and 
determines a battle. 

It was difficult to be placed on worse ground. In the first 
place, the Duchess de Montbazon was as much despised for her 
manners and her character as celebrated for her beauty ; and 
the object of her attack was a young woman who had but just 
appeared in society, and who was already the object of univer- 
sal admiration ; of a beauty so dazzling and ethereal that every 
one on seeing her compared her with an angel; of brilliant 
talents and a noble heart; the person, indeed, of all others, 
whom the Importants should have endeavored the most to gam, 
especially as her natural generosity did not lead her toward the 
side of the court, and had even given some umbrage to the 
prime minister. Madame de Longueville was then only occu- 
pied with wit, innocent coquetry, and, above all, the glory of her 
brother, the Duke d'Enghien. It must be confessed, however 
that there were then in her heart some germs of an Important 
which La Kochefoucauld afterwards knew but too well how to 
develop.^ The injury which had been done her, the shameful 

^ About this time, or at least in the year 1644, Mazarin draws a se- 
vere portrait of Madame de Longueville, in which, if he does not calum- 
niate her, he omits no blemish, pointing out all her defects without no- 
ticing her virtues, as though he already saw in her his most redoubtable 
enemy. V. Carnet^ p. 23: "Ladetta Damaha tuttoil potere soprkilfra- 
tello. Fa vanita di disprezzare la corte, di odiare il favore, e di.sprezzar 
tutto quello che non vede a suoi piedi. Vorrebbe veder il fratello domi- 
nare e disporre di tutte grazie. E donna simulatissima ; riceve tutte le 
deferenze e grazie come dovuteli. Yive d'ordinario con gran fredezza 
con tutti ; araa la galanteria piu per acquistar servitori et amici al fratel- 
lo che per alcun male ; insinua nel fratello concetti alti alii quali per tan- 
to egli h naturalmente portato ; non fa. conto della madre perche la crede 

6 



122 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

motives of which were apparent to every one, was revolting to 
all honorable hearts. The impetuosity of Beaufort on this occa- 
sion was also very blamable. He had formerly paid his ad- 
dresses to Mademoiselle de Bourbon, who had repulsed them, 
so that his conduct bore an air of odious revenge. Besides, it 
was the policy of Madame de Chevreuse to deprive Mazarin 
of his supporters ; it was for this that she had excited the 
devotees against him and made them act on the queen ; now 
Madame de Longueville was not less the idol of the Carmel- 
ites and the devout party, than of the hotel de Rambouillet. 
Lastly, the Duke d'Enghien, already covered with the laurels 
of Eocroy and on the point of adding to them those of 
Thionville, was so evidently the arbiter of the question, that Ma- 
dame de Chevreuse earnestly insisted that they should rid them- 
selves of Mazarin while the young duke was employed at a 
distance and before his return from the army. To wound him 
through a sister whom he adored, to incense him unnecessarily 
and hasten his return, was an extravagant folly ; therefore all 
who were sensible among the Importants, La Rochefoucauld, 
La Chatre, and Alexandre de Campion, were anxious to pacify 
and hush up this unhappy quarrel ; and Madame de Chevreuse, 
careful to make her court to the queen at the same time that 
she plotted a dark intrigue against her minister, had prepared 
a little festival at Renard, designed to dissipate the effects of 
what had just passed. But all her policy was foiled by the 
foolish pride of a woman as destitute of talent as she was of 
heart.' 

troppo attaccata alia corte ; crede con il fratello clie tutte le grazie che 
si accordano alia sua persona, casa, parent! et amici li sieno dovute, e 
che si vorrebbe bene poter le negare, mk che non vi e corraggio di farlo 
per timore di disgustarli. Grande intelligenze con la marchesa di Sab!6 
6 duchessa di Lesdigaieres. In casa di Sable vi e un commercia continiio 
d'Andilly, la principessa di Ghimene, Anghien, sua sorella, Nemur, e moUi 
altri, e vi si parla di tutti liberamente. Bisogna haver qualcheduno I^ 
che possi avvertire di quelle vi passer^." 

^ Alexandre de Campion, in the Recue.il before cited, letter to Madame 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 123 

Notwithstanding, Mazarin had profited by the blunders of 
his adversaries. At an early jieriod he had joyfully seen, and 
had artfully increased, the enmity of the houses of Conde and 
Vendome. In proportion as the VendoQies declared them- 
selves more openly against him, he grew on better terms with 
the Condes. He had put to himself the question : " What 
must be done if the Yendomes and the Condos come to a rup- 
ture, presuming that the interest of the state be not involved 
in the quarrel ? " ' — a problem which he had evidently no diffi- 
culty in resolving, for the interest of the State and that of the 
cardinal were now united on the side of the Condes. At the 
same time that Madame de Montbazon and Beaufort offered 
this insult to Madame de Longueville, news came to Paris that 
the conqueror of Rocroy had just terminated the difficult 
siege of Thionville, and opened to France one of the gates of 
Germany. The sword of the young duke seemed everywhere 
to carry victory with it. The Marquis de Gevres, who prom- 
ised so fair, was slain ; Gassion was grievously wounded ; Tu- 
renne and Praslin were occupied in Italy ; and Guebriant, 
closely pressed by Mercy, had just recrossed the Rhine. The 
Duke d'Enghien, wath his boldness and his constantly increas- 
ing popularity, alone could exercise sufficient ascendency over 
the army to bring it back to Germany, and to dissipate the 
terror inspired by the memory of the defeat of Nortlingen. 
In the council, M. the Prince lent to Mazarin a selfish and wav- 
ering, yet essential and useful support. Madame the Princess 
was the best friend of the queen ; she had openly declared her- 
self in favor of the cardinal and against his rival Chateau- 

de Montbazon : " If my advice had been followed at Renard, you would 
have departed in obedience to the queen ; in which case you would not 
now be residing at Rochefort, and we should not be exposed to the dan- 
ger that threatens us." 

^ III. Carnet, p. 100: "Come dovrei governarmi se nascesse querela 
tr^ il duca d'Enghien e la casa di Vendomo, senza che vi fosse intrigato 
il servitio della regina ? " 



124 SECEET HISTORY OF THE FEENCH COUET 

neuf. To serve the Condes, therefore, was to serve the State, 
and also to serve himself. The choice of Mazarin could not 
be doubtful, and it is said that, far from soothing the queen, he 
incensed her the more.^ 

In this critical position, what course was left for Madame 
de Chevreuse to pursue ? She endeavored to restrain Madame 
de Montbazon, but she could neither forsake her nor surrender 
herself. She therefore resolved to prosecute with energy the 
tragical scheme which had become the last hope, the final re- 
source of the party. She had already broached the proposition 
of ridding themselves of Mazarin ; and, through Madame de 
Montbazon, she had drawn Beaufort into it. The latter had 
gathered around him the men of action of whom we have spo- 
ken, and who were wholly devoted to him. A conspiracy had 
been formed, and all the measures concerted to surprise and 
kill the cardinal. 

^ Madame de Motteville, vol. L, p. 83. 



UISTDEE KICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 125 



CHAPTEK lY. 

August, 1643. 

Conspiracy of Madame de Chevreuse and Beaufort against Mazarin. — La Eochefou- 
cauld and Ketz deny this Conspiracy. — Plan and Details of the whole Affair, as 
gathered from the Carnets and Letters of the Cardinal and the Memoirs of Henri 
de Campion, 

We need not be very much surprised at sucli an enterprise on 
the part of these two women and of a grandson of Henri TV. 
At this great epoch of our history, between the League and 
the Fronde, strength and energy were the distinctive traits of 
the French aristocracy. Court life and an effeminate opulence 
had not yet enervated them. Every thing there was extreme, 
vice as well as virtue. They attacked their enemies and de- 
fended themselves with the same weapons. The Marshal 
d'Ancre had been murdered, and the assassination of Riche- 
lieu had been more than once attempted, while he never hesi- 
tated to erect scaffolds in his turn. Was the trial of the Mar- 
shal de Marillac at Kuel under the cardinal's own eyes, his 
condemnation without conclusive proof, and his cruel exe- 
cution on the Place de Grreve, any thing else than a judicial 
assassination? Corneille faithfully portrays the society of the 
times. His Emilie also enters into an assassination, yet she 
is represented as none the less perfect a heroine for it. Ma- 
dame de Chevreuse had long been accustomed to conspiracies ; 
she was fearless and unscrupulous, and she had not leagued her- 
self with Beaupuis, Saint-Ybar, Yaricarville, and Campion 
merely to pass her time in idle conversation. She had not 
remained a stranger to the designs which they had formerly 



126 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

plotted against Riclielieu; in 1643, she fomented, as we have 
seen, their enthusiasm and devotion ; and it is not without 
reason, we think, that Mazarin attributes to her the first idea 
of the project which was to have been accomplished bj Beau- 
fort. 

As a matter of course, the Tmportants, and their successors, 
the Frondeurs, disavow this project, and give it out as an in- 
vention of the cardinal. This point is of the most vital im- 
portance, and merits a careful investigation. As it was this 
conspiracy, whether real or feigned, that decided the struggle 
between Madame de Chevreuse and Mazarin, history, under 
penalty of stopping at the surface of events and consenting to 
ignore their true causes, is bound to inquire whether Mazarin 
really owed the success of his whole career and the brilliant 
future which opened thenceforth before him to an ingenious 
and boldly maintained falsehood ; or whether it was due to 
Madame de Chevreuse and the Importants, who, after hav- 
ing vainly essayed all other means against him, in an attempt 
to destroy him by the hand of the assassin, destroyed them- 
selves and became unwittingly the instruments of his triumph. 
For ourselves, we are convinced, and we believe ourselves able 
to prove, that the conspiracy attributed to the Importants, far 
from being a chimera, was the almost inevitable denouement of 
the critical position which we have described. 

La Rochefoucauld, without haying shared in the insane 
hopes of his friends or lent his aid to their rash enterprise, 
makes it a point of honor to defend them' after their over- 
throw, and to cover their retreat. He affects to doubt whether 
the conspiracy that caused so much noise was real or imagi- 
nary. Iix his eyes, the Duke de Beaufort, by an injudicious 
stroke of policy, attempted to make the cardinal take the 
alarm, believing that it would only be necessary to terrify him 
to induce him to quit France ; and that it was with this view 

^ Memoires, ibid., p. 388. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 127 

that he formed these assemblies and eadeavored to give them 
an air of conspiracy. La Kochefoucauld especially constitutes 
himself the champion of Madame de Chevreuse, and professes 
himself fully persuaded that she was ignorant of the designs 
of the Duke de Beaufort. After the hi.ntorian of the Impor- 
tants, the memoirist of the Frondeurs holds nearly the same 
language. Like La Rochefoucauld, E,etz has but one aim in 
his memoirs — that of giving himself a statesmanlike air, and of 
making a conspicuous figure :n every thing, both good and evil. 
He is often more veracious, because he exercises less circum- 
spection for others, and is more disposed to sacrifice everybody, 
himself excepted. We cannot comprehend his reserve or his in- 
credulity in this instance. He knew very well that the most 
of those accused of having taken part in this plot had already 
been implicated in more than one similar affair. He has himself 
informed us that he had conspired with the Count de Soissons, 
that he had blamed him for not having struck Richelieu at 
Amiens, and that with La Rochepot, he, the Abbe de Retz, had 
formed the design of assassinating him at the Tuileries during 
the ceremony of the baptism of Mademoiselle. The coadjutorship 
of the archbishopric of Paris, which the regent had just grant- 
ed him in consideration of the virtues and the services of his 
father, had pacified him, it is true, but his ancient accomplices, 
wlio had not been so well treated as he, had remained faithful 
to their cause, their designs, and their habits. Is Retz sincere 
when he refuses to believe that they attempted against Maza- 
rin what he had seen them undertake and what he himself had 
undertaken against Richelieu ? In his blind hatred, he throws 
all the blame on Mazarin, and pretends that he was or that he 
feigned to be afraid. According to him, it was the invention of 
Abbe de La Riviere, who, to deliver himself from the rivalry of 
the Count de Montresor with the Duke d' Orleans, wished to 
persuade Mazarin that there was a conspiracy plotted against 
him in which Montresor was concerned. It was also seconded 
by M. le Prince, who wished to destroy Beaufort in the fear 



128 SECEET HISTOEY OF THE FEENCH COUET 

that his son, the Dnke d'Enghien, would engage in a duel with 
him, as he wished to do to avenge his sister, during the brief 
stay which he made in Paris after the capture of Thionville. 
Finally, Ketz says : " The reason why I have never believed in 
this plot is that neither proof nor deposition indicative of it 
has ever been seen, although the greater part of the domestics 
of the household of the Vendomes have long been in prison. 
Yaumorin and Ganseville, to whom I have spoken of it a hun- 
dred times in the Fronde, have sworn to me that nothing 
could be more false : one of these was a captain of the guards, 
and the other, the equerry of M. de Beaufort.^ 

We shall presently see these last reasons — the only ones 
which merit any attention — dissipate of themselves ; but let us 
commence by opposing to the two suspicious opinions of Ketz 
and La Kochefoucauld some most disinterested witnesses, 
above all, the silence of Montresor,^ who, while protesting that 
neither he nor his friend, the Count de Bethune, had been im- 
plicated in the conspiracy imputed to the Duke de Beaufort, 
says not a single word against the reality of this conspiracy, 
wliich he would not have failed to ridicule had he believed it 
imaginary. Madame de Motteville, who is not in the habit of 
denouncing the unfortunate, after having related the different 
rumors of the court with impartiality, recounts some facts 
which seem authentic and decisive.^ One of the best inform- 
ed and most veracious of the contemporary historians does 
not express here the least doubt : '' The Importants," says 
Monglat, " seeing that they could not expel the cardinal, re- 
solved to rid themselves of him by the sword, and held several 
councils for this purpose at the hotel de Yendome."* This 



* Meynoires, vol. i., p. 65. See also the edition of M. Aime Cham- 
pollion, p. 41. 

^ Memoires, coll. Petitot, vol. lix, 
' Memoires, vol. i., p. 184. 

* Memoires, coll. Petitot, vol. Ixix., p. 419. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 129 

opinion is confirmed by the new and numerous accounts 
furnished us by the Garnets of Mazarin and his confidential let- 
ters. 

Let us disprove the supposition of E,etz, that Mazarin may 
have been somewhat afraid, or that he feigned to be terrified 
by the shadow of a conspiracy. As to the courage of Maza- 
rin, we appeal to La Rochefoucauld himself : " Unlike the 
Cardinal do Richelieu, who had a fearless mind and a tiaiid 
heart, the Cardinal Mazarin," says he, "has more fearlessness 
of heart than of mind." ^ Mazarin had commenced as a sol- 
dier ; he had given more than one proof of intrepidity, particu- 
larly at Casal, where he threw himself between two armies on 
the point of coming to blows. He doubtless studied to conjure 
down perils, but when he could not prevent them, he knew how 
to face them with firmness. Mazarin was not, therefore, a 
man to take alarm at false appearances ; and, on the other 
hand, he had no need to feign imaginary fears, for the danger 
was certain ; and, once more, in the constantly increasing 
progress of his credit with the queen, what resource remained 
to the Importants, except the enterprise which they had for- 
merly attempted against Richelieu, and which they could 
easily renew against his successor ? Mazarin had not as yet 
any guards, and he knew Madame de Chevreuse well enough 
to take in earnest the proposition which she had made in the 
cabals of the hotel de Yendome. Weigh well this considera- 
tion : in his Carnets, Mazarin is not on a stage ; he is not writ- 
ing for the public ; he reveals his real feelings ; and he is seen 
there, not intimidated, but aroused to a sense of his danger. 
He feels himself surrounded by assassins, and he is convinced 
that they are directed by Madame de Chevreuse. He follows 
all their movements, he gathers all their conversation, he col- 
lects the slightest proofs of their conspiracy, and he counts 
and names the chiefs and the soldiers. 

^ Me?noires, ibid., p. 374. 
6* 



130 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FEENCH COURT 

" Madame de Chevreuse has brought in the brothers 
Campion." 

" A host of men are brought in daily." 
" Some enterprise is certainly on foot. They talk of sur- 
prising me in the Faubourg Saint Germain. They pretend to 
sell their horses in public and buy them in again in private. 

" Plessis Besangon (a distinguished officer, commissary of 
stores and counsellor of state, and attached to Mazarin) says 
that more than forty armed men have been seen about the 
hotel de Yendome." 

" M. de Bellegarde assures me that if I had not been in 
the carriage of his royal highness on my return from Maisons, 
Beaufort would have had me assassinated. The domestics of 
the Count d'Orval have seen twelve or fifteen men, armed with 
pistols, placed on three or four consecutive evenings between 
the hotel de Crequi and their own in such a manner as easily 
to surprise and surround me." 

" They have proposed to the Duke de Guise and his sons 
to assassinate me, but they would not listen to the proposal" 

" L'Argentin met Beaufort and Beaupuis (the Count de 
Beaupuis, only son of the Count de Maille) as they were re- 
turning from the Louvre, which the first had quitted when the 
queen retired to her oratory. ' My masters, there must certain- 
ly be some quarrel brewing,' said L'Argentin to them, 'for 
I just now met fifteen or twenty gentlemen on horseback, well 
mounted and armed with pistols.' ' Well, what have I to do 
with it ? ' answered Beaufort, shrugging his shoulders. — I 
have been warned*that they mean to surprise me as I am going 
in my carriage to the palace of the Duke d' Orleans in the 
Faubourg Saint Germain, (the Duke d'Orleans had resided at 
the Luxembourg since the death of his mother, Marie de Me- 
dicis.) — On Wednesday, the Duke de Vendome exclaimed 
twice while talking with the Marshal d'Estrees, ' I wish that 
my son Beaufort were dead.' ' " 

^ III. Carnet, pp. 28, 34, VO, 82, 84, 85, and 91. IV. Carnet, p. 5. 



UNDEE RICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 131 

These quotation, whicli we miglit easily multiply, prove 
incontestably that the conspiracy was a real one in the eyes 
of Mazarin. It was for this that he used every effort to throw 
light upon this dark intrigue. After some time, he submitted 
the affair to the ordinary course of justice in the court of 
all others the most independent and at the same time the 
least disposed in his favor, the Parliament of Paris. It was 
investigated in conformity with every formality of law, and in 
the most careful manner. Indications abounded, whatever 
Retz may say, and it was not the fault of Mazarin if conclu- 
sive proofs were wanting. But, promptly warned by the trusty 
friends which they possessed in the court, as well as about the 
queen and Mazarin himself, the Importants had no difficulty 
in favoring the escape of those conspirators most compromised 
in the affair. 

" I am not very well satisfied with the Chevalier du Guet," 
says Mazarin,^ " Brillet, Fouqueret, Lie, and twenty-four 
others have fled. It is supposed that they have embarked for 
England in a vessel which has been awaiting them for three 
weeks.." ' Far from letting them escape at their ease, Maza- 
rin long pursued them with an obstinate eagerness, even into 
Holland. The 16th of April, 1644, he writes to Beringhen, 
who was then on a mission to the Prince of Orano-e, " Advices 
have been given me that Brillet and Fouqueret, who are the 
two persons deepest in the confidence of M. de Beaufort, and 
to whom he has most freely opened his heart concerning the 
conspiracy against my person, have gone to serve with the 
troops in Holland, having changed their names, and let their 
beards grow, so that they may not be known. Brillet is call- 
ed La Ferriere. I entreat you to use all possible diligence to 
prove whether this is true, and when you return, to give an 
order to some person to watch over their actions, because we 
intend to devise some means of taking them." ^ 

* III. Carnet, p. 88. ^ IV. Carnet, p. 8. 

' Letfres de Mazarin ; lettres frangaises, vol, i., fol. 274, recto. 



132 SECEET HISTORY OP THE FRE2*ICH COUPwT 

The Count de Beaupnis, son of the Count de Maille, he 
whom Mazarin designates in his Garnets and letters as the inti- 
mate confidant of Beaufort, and, after him, tlie principal 
person accused, found means of concealing himself during the 
first search; he succeeded in escaping from France, and 
sought an asylum at Bome under the avowed protection of 
Spain. Mazarin left no efforts untried to induce the court of 
Borne to send Beaupuis back to France, so that he might be 
legally adjudged. Not only did he make the demand officially 
through M. de Gremonville, then accredited to the holy see, 
but he wrote privately to all his sure friends, to the Cardinal 
Grimaldi, to his brother-in-law, Vincent Martinozzi, to Paul 
Macarani, and to Zongo Ondedei,' urging them to do all in their 
power to obtain the extradition of Beaupuis ; and suggesting 
to them the strongest reasons which he charges them to plead 
to the holy father ; namely, that Beaupuis was the principal 
confidant of Beaufort, that he was the link between Beaufort 
and the rest of the accused ; that, this link being suppressed, 
justice could no longer take its course ; that a crime was in 
question which ought particularly to affect the sacred college 
and the holy fathers — an assassination attempted on the person 
of a cardinal; that it was the queen herself who reclaimed 
Beaupuis; that it was a demand for one of her servants, 
Beaupuis being ensign in a company of horse-guards, a confi- 
dential post which demanded especial fidelity ; and that Beau- 
puis would not be delivered to his enemies as was pretended, 
but to the parliament, whose impartiality was well known. 



^ Lettres italiennes de Mazarin, vol. i., letter to Ondedei, of March 
25, 1645, fol. 226, verso; ibid., letter of May 8, to Vincenzo Martinozzi, 
fol. 240, verso; ibid., letter of May 26, to Paolo Macarani, fol. 246; ibid., 
letter of June 2, to Cardinal Grimaldi, fol. 248 ; ibid., letter to Ordcdei, 
of the same date ; ibid., letter to the Cardinal Grimaldi, of July 15, and 
to Ondedei of September 5 ; to the Cardinal Grimaldi, June 2, 1 645, fol. 
248; to Ondedei, June 2, 1645; to the Cardinal Grimaldi, July 15, 1645; 
to Ondedei, September 5, 1645. 



UNDEK EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIIST. 133 

The Pope could not at first forbear, for form's sake at least, 
from placing Beaupuis in the Chateau Saint-Auge. But he 
was soon liberated, and a private lodging given him where he 
could receive almost every one he chose. Mazarin loudly com- 
plained of such an indulgence. " All is arranged," says he, 
*' so that if necessary he may be able to escape, or if not for 
this, to furnish the Duke de Yendome with every facility for 
causing him to be poisoned, so that with Beaupuis may be de- 
stroyed the principal proof of the treason of his son. If all this 
happened in Barbary, how indignant we should be ! Yet this 
passes at Bome, in the capital of Christendom, under the eyes 
and by the order of a pope ! " Mazarin had sent a devoted 
agent named Gueffier to Borne, to receive Beaupuis from the 
hands of the holy father, with orders to take every imaginable 
means for preventing the escape of his prisoner on the way 
from Borne to Civita Yecchia, to put him on board a French 
vessel, and to bring him to France. He even went so far as 
to menace the protectors of Beaupuis with the vengeance of 
the young king, " who, though but seven years of age, has 
nevertheless very long arms." Mazarin did not cease his 
pursuit until the close of the year 1645, when he was clearly 
convinced that the new pope. Innocent X., who had succeeded 
to Urban YIII., as well as Pamphile, the cardinal-nephew, 
and Pancirolle, the secretary of state, belonged wholly to the 
Spanish party, and that France could expect neither favor nor 
justice from the pontifical court. 

In default of Beaupuis, Mazarin would have been very glad 
to lay hands on one of the brothers Campion, who were inti- 
mately connected with Beaufort and with Madame de Chev 
reuse, and who stood too high in the confidence of both not to 
possess all their secrets. But he complains, as we have seen, 
of being very badly seconded. And then he had to deal with 
skilful conspirators, practiced in the art of sheltering them- 
selves and hiding their tracks; with the active and indefatiga- 
ble Duchess de Chevreuse, and with the Duke de Yendome, 



134 SECRET HISTOEY OP THE FEENCH COUET 

who, to save his son, studied to favor the escape of all those 
whose depositions might have served to convict him, or guard- 
ed them in some sort himself, by concealing and even impris- 
oning them at Anet.* Mazarin was only able to seize obscure 
men, who were ignorant of the details of the plot and inca- 
pable of throwing any light on it. Notwithstanding, among 
these there were two noblemen, who, without having known 
this enterprise thoroughly, had at least been present at several 
assemblies which had been held under the plausible pretext of 
taking up the cause of the Duchess de Montbazon. Mazarin 
names them ; they were MM. d' Avancourt and de Brassy, 
noblemen of Picardy, of tried courage, and intimate friends of 
Lie, captain of the guards of Beaufort, and one of the con- 
spirators. Ganseville and Vaumorin, upon whose testimony 
Retz insists in order to prove that there never was any conspi- 
racy, were of no importance. Vaumorin may have become 
captain of the guards of the Duke de Beaufort in 1649, but 
he was not so in 1643, it was Lie ; and Ganseville was one of 
those subordinates who had never been admitted to his confi- 
dence. They knew nothing ; they may, therefore, have very 
truly said to Retz during the Fronde, what he makes them 
say. Bat D' Avancourt and De Brassy did know something, 
and it was for this reason that the Duke de Yendome en- 
treated them to come to Anet. Arrested and thrown into the 
Bastille, and intimidaflfed or gained over, whatever E-etz may 
say of it, they made grave depositions and furnished conclusive 
evidence ; but these stopped at Henri de Campion and Lie, 
the only conspirators whom they had known. Mazarin neglect- 
ed nothing to draw out and make use of the only important 
capture which he had made. " Hasten the examination of the 
two prisoners," says he. " Summon the proprietor of the Mai- 
son du Sauvage, situated next the hotel de Yendome, where 
D'Avancourt and De Brass}^ lodged, as well as the innkeeper 

' IV. Carnet, p. 8. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 135 

near the river, at whose house there were eleven persons on 
Monday evening. Question the lackeys of the aforesaid D'Av- 
ancourt and Brassy, etc." " The brother of Brassy says that 
the Duke de Vendome is displeased with them because they 
suffered themselves to be taken without resistance." * The 
Importants were much disquieted for fear of some revelations 
which the two prisoners might make. Mazariu spread the re- 
port that Avaneourt and Brassy had said nothing of import- 
ance, and that the affair would end in nothing, in order to lull 
the vio-ilance and the fears of the fuo-itives, and embolden them 
to leave their retreat, and come to be captured at Paris. 
" Tremblay " ^ (the governor of the Bastille) " has told me that 
Limoges (Lafayette, the Bishop de Limoges, one of the chiefs 
of the Importants in the Church) bears me much malice, and 
that he has begged to know what the two prisoners have said, 
ending by saying that the Cardinal Mazarin would be finely 
hoaxed, and that he had only caused them be arrested and 
thrown into the Bastille in order to seem to justify the injury 
done to the Duke de Beaufort. I have ordered Tremblay to 
tell Limoges that the two prisoners made no confession, but 
defended themselves very plausibly, in order to confirm him in 
the opinion which he holds, so that, on giving this information 

. ^ At Paris, no one doubted but the affair of these two gentlemen was 
seriously prosecuted. A very curious private correspondence, preserved 
in the archives of foreign affiiirs, France, vol. cv., contains a letter from 
a pei'son called Gaudin to Servien, the skilful diplomatist, under date of 
October 31, 1643, in which the following passage is found, which repeats 
almost verbatim the words of the Garnets : " Search has been made in 
the inns of the Faubourg Saint Germain, where the two gentlemen now 
imprisoned in the Bastille lodged. On seeing that nothing could be dis- 
covered from their examination nor that of their lackeys, the hosts and 
hostesses of the said inns, namely, of the Sauvage and of some other, were 
also imprisoned, in the hope to intimidate them and draw from them 
some confession of the deed of which they are accused ; this availed noth- 
ing, and they have been released." 
^ IV. Carnet^ p. 9. 



136 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

to tlie Duke de Yen dome, as he will not fail to do, those who 
hav-e fled will be reassured and return, and thus enable me to 
lay hands on some one of them." 

But why exhaust ourselves in demonstrating that Mazarin 
enacted no farce in the suit instituted against the conspirators, 
that he pursued them in good faith and with vigor, ar.d that 
he was fully convinced that a project of assassination had been 
formed against him, when the truth of the existence of such a 
project is elsewhere evinced, and when, in default of a sentence 
of parliament which must, necessarily, have come to a stand 
from want of sufficient proofs, neither Beaupuis, nor any of the 
Campions, nor Lie, nor Brillet having been taken, we have 
what is still better, namely, the full and entire avowal of one 
of the principal conspirators, with the plan and details of the 
whole affair, disclosed in memoirs too recently known, but 
wbose authenticity cannot be contested/ We speak of the val- 
uable memoirs of Henri de Campion, brother of the friend of 
Madame de Chevreuse, whom the latter had induced to enter 
with him into the service of the Duke de Yendome, and more 
particularly, of the Duke de Beaufort. Henri had accom- 
panied the duke in his flight to England after the conspiracy 
of Cinq-Mars, and had returned with him ; he possessed bis 
entire confidence, and he recounts nothing in which he himself 
has not taken a considerable part. Henri was of a very differ- 
ent character from his brother Alexandre. He was well-in- 
formed, honorable, and courageous, no braggart, averse to all in- 
trigues, and born to make his way in the career of arms by the 
most direct paths. He wrote his memoirs in the solitude in 
which, after the loss of his wife and daughter, he awaited death 
in the midst of exercises of the most fervent pisty. It is not 
in this mood that one is apt to invent fables, and there is no 



' Memoires de Henri de Campion, etc., 180Y, a Paris, chez Treuttel et 
Wertz, in 8vo. Petitot has only given an extract from them in the se- 
quel of the Memoires de la Chatre, vol. li. of his collection. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AISTD MAZARIlSr. 137 

medium — his assertions are such that they must be implicitly 
believed, or, if their truth is doubted, he must be considered as 
the basest of villains. No interest could have guided his pen; 
for he composed, or at all events completed his memoirs shortly 
after the death of Mazarin, without thinking therefore of mak- 
iDg court to him by tardy revelations, and scarcely two years 
before his own death, which took place in 1663. Truly, he 
may be said to have written in the fear of Grod and under the 
sole inspiration of his own conscience. 

Now open his memoirs and you will see there all the de- 
tails which fill the Garnets of Mazarin confirmed point by point. 
Nothing is wanting; every thing is in accordance with them; 
they correspond marvellously. It seems in truth as if Maza- 
rin, in writing his notes, must have had before his eyes the me- 
moirs of Henri de Campion, or* as if Henri de Campion had 
copied verbatim from the Carnets of Mazarin — so well does he 
both complete and recapitulate them. 

His brother Alexandre, in his letters, written during the 
month of August,^ lets fall more than one mysterious sentence. 
He writes thus to the Duchess de Montbazon, " You must 
not despair, madame ; there are half a dozen honest men who 
have not yet yielded. Your illustrious friend will not forsake 
you. If it be necessary to renounce your friendship to be 
considered sane, there are some who will choose rather to pass 
for madmen all their lives." Like Montresor, he does not 
once say that no plot had been formed against Mazarin, which 
is a sort of tacit avowal of it ; and when the storm bursts, he 
resolves to conceal himself, counsels Beaupuis to do the same, 
and concludes with these significant words, " We cannot 
engage in the affairs of the court and be masters of their re- 
sults, and as we profit by the good, we must also resolve to 
endure the evil." Henri de Campion lifts this already trans- 
parent veil. 

^ Recueil before cited. 



138 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

He explicitly declares that there was a project for ridding 
themselves of Mazarin, and that this project was originated, 
not by Beaufort, but by Madame de Chevreuse, in concert 
with Madame de Montbazon. " I believe," says he, " that 
the duke's design was not prompted by his own private feelings, 
but by the persuasions of the Duchesses de Chevreuse and De 
Montbazon, who had entire power over him, and who bore an 
irreconcilable hatred towards the cardinal. The reason why I 
say this is that all the while that he was pursuing it, I detect- 
ed in him a secret repugnance to it, which, if I mistake not, 
was overruled by the promise that he had probably made 
these ladies." There had therefore really been a plot, and its 
true author, as Mazarin asserts and as Campion repeats, was 
none other than Madame de Chevreuse, for Madame de Mont- 
bazon was but a tool for her. 

Beaufort, being gained over, persuaded his intimate friend. 
Count de Beaupuis, son of the Count de Maille, and ensign in 
the horse-guards of the queen. Madame de Chevreuse added to 
them Alexandre de Campion, the eldest brother of Henri, 
with whom we are already acquainted. " She had much love 
for him," says Henri de Campion, in a manner which, added 
to the ambiguous words of Alexandre which we have quoted 
before,' strengthens the suspicion whether he was not at that 
time really one of the numerous successors of Chalais. He 
was then thirty-three years of age, and his brother admits 
that he had contracted the tastes and habits of the faction 
from the Count de Soissons. Beaupuis and Alexandre de 
Campion approved the plot which was communicated to them, 
" the first," says Henri de Campion, " believing it to be a means 
of attaining higher offices, and my brother seeing therein the 
advantage of Madame de Chevreuse, and consequently, his 



own." 



Such were the two first accomplices of Beaufort. Soon 



» See Chapter II. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 139 

after, he disclosed his plans to Henri do Campion, one of his 
principal gentlemen, to Lie, captain of his guards, and to 
Brillet, his equerry. There the secret rested. Many other 
gentlemen and servants of the house of Yendome were to have 
participated in the action, but they were not made confidants ; 
whence we understand the ignorance of Vaumorin and Ganse- 
<7ille, and the asssrtion which they may have made to Retz 
during the Fronde. The affair was well planned and worthy 
of Madame de Chevreuse. There were but five or six con- 
spirators admitted to full confidence, all well capable of keep- 
ing the secret, and they kept it faithfully. Under them were 
the men of deeds, who were ready for action but knew not 
what they were to do ; and beyond these were the men of 
the morrow, upon whom they counted to applaud the blow, 
when it had been struck, without deeming it proper to take 
them into the conspiracy. At all events, Henri de Cam- 
pion does not even name Montresor, Bethune, Fontraille, Ya- 
ricarville, and Saint- Ybar, which explains why Mazarin, al- 
though having had an eye on them all, did not cause their ar- 
rest. Neither does Henri de Campion speak of Chandenier, 
La Chatre, Treville, the Duke de Guise, the Duke de Eetz, 
the Duke de Bouillon, and La Eochefoucauld, whose senti- 
ments were not doubtful, but who were not ripe for imbruing 
their hands in an assassination ; this also explains the silence of 
Mazarin in respect to them in all that concerned the con- 
spiracy of Beaufort, although he did not deceive himself in the 
slightest degree as to their disposition and the part which they 
would have taken if the conspiracy had succeeded, or even if 
a serious struggle had been commenced. 

The plot rested for some time with Madame de Chevreuse, 
Madame de Montbazon, Beaufort, Beaupuis, and Alexandre 
de Campion. The final resolution was not taken until the end 
of July or in the beginning of August ; that is, precisely at 
the height of the quarrel between Madame de Montbazon 
and Madame de Longueville, which urged on the crisis and 



140 SECRET HISTOEY OF THE FEENCH COUET 

opened tlae door to all the following events. It was then tliat 
Beaufort spoke of it to Henri de Campion in the presence of 
Beaupuis. The crime of Mazarin was that of continuing the 
policy of Bichelieu. "The Duke de Beaufort said to me 
that he presumed I had remarked that Cardinal Mazarin was 
re-establishing the tyranny of the Cardinal de Richelieu, both 
in the court and throughout the whole kingdom, with even 
more authority and violence than had been seen under the 
government of the latter ; that, having entirely gained the 
mind of the queen and won all the ministers to his disposal, it 
was impossible to check his evil designs without taking his 
life; and that, regard for the public good having made him re- 
solve to take this course, he therefore acquainted me with it, 
praying me to assist him by my counsels and my personal 
aid in its execution. Beaupuis then took up the discourse, 
warmly representing the evils v/hich the too great authority of 
the Cardinal de Richelieu had brought upon France, and con- 
cludiug by saying that similar ills must be prevented before 
his successor should have had time to render them incurable." 
In conclusion, these are the views and the words of the Im- 
portants and the Frondeurs, of La Rochefoucauld and of 
Retz. Henri de Campion asserts that at first he opposed the 
project of the duke with so much earnestness that he wavered 
more than once, but that the two duchesses soon incensed him 
again, while Beaupuis and Alexandre de Campion urged him 
on instead of restraining him. Some time after, Beaufort 
having declared that he was fully resolved in the matter, Hen- 
ri de Campion yielded on two conditions. " One was," says 
he, " that I should not be required to lay hands on the car- 
dinal, as I would kill myself rather than do an act of this sort ; 
and the other, that if the execution should be attempted in 
Beaufort's absence, I should not be. there, while if he himself 
'were present, I should not scruple to remain near his person, 
to defend him in any accidents that might happen ; my employ 
Dear him and my affection for him alike obliging me to this. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 141 

H(i granted mo these two things, professing to esteem me the 
more for them, and adding that he should certainly be at the 
execution in order to authorize it by his presence." 

The plan was to attack the cardinal in the street while he 
was making calls in his carriage, at which time he usually had 
with him but a few ecclesiastics, together with five or six 
lackeys. They were to appear suddenly with an armed force, 
surround the carriage and strike Mazarin. For this, it was 
necessary that a certain number of adherents of the house of 
Yendome should be found every day in the cabarets around 
the residence of the cardinal, which was then in the hotel de 
Cleves, near the Louvre. Henri de Campion names Ganse- 
ville positively as among the followers who had not been ad- 
mitted into the secret. To these he adds " MM. d'Avancourt 
and de Brassy, the Picardians, both determined men and inti- 
mate friends of Lie." They gave as a pretext that the Condes 
intending to offer an affront to Madame de Montbazon, the 
Duke de Beaufort wished to have a troop of armed and mount- 
ed gentlemen at his command to defend her. The characters 
were distributed in advance. Some were to stop the coach- 
man of the cardinal ; others were to open the doors and strike 
the fatal blow ; while the duke was to be there on horseback 
with Beaupuis, Henri de Campion and others, to oppose and 
disperse all who attempted to resist them. Alexf.ndre de Cam- 
pion was to remain near the Duchess de Chevreuse and 
subject to her orders, while she was to be more than usually 
assiduous about the queen, to pave the way for her friends, and 
in case of success, to win her over to the side of the victors. 
Several favorable occasions for executing this plan presented 
themselves. At one time, Henri de Campion being with his 
retinue in the little line du Champ-Fleury, one end of which 
issues into the Bue Saint- Flonore, and the other, near the 
Louvre, he saw the cardinal leave the hotel de Cleves in a car- 
riage with the Abbe de Bentivoglio, nephew of the celebrated 
cardinal of that name, together with some monks and a few 



142 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

valets. Campion asked one of them where the cardinal was 
going; he answered, to the hotel of the Marquis d'Estrees. 
" I saw," says Campion, " that if I chose to give this intel 
ligence, his death was certain. But I believed that in so doing 
I should be so culpable both before God and man that the oc- 
casion did not tempt me." 

The next day it was known that the cardinal was to go to 
partake of a collation with Madame du Vigean, at her charm- 
ing villa of La Barre, at the entrance of the valley of Mont- 
morency, at which the queen, who had already departed, to- 
gether with Madame de Longueville, would be present.^ The 
cardinal proceeded thither, having no one in the carriage with 
him but the Count d'Harcourt. Beaufort commanded Cam- 
pion to summon his troop and pursue him, but Campion repre- 
sented to him that if they attacked the cardinal in the com- 
pany of the Count d'Harcourt, they must decide to kill both, 
D'Harcourt being too generous to see Mazarin struck down be- 
fore his eyes without defending him, and that the murder of 
D'Harcourt would excite all the house of Lorraine against 
them. 

A few days after, they received information that the car- 
dinal and the Duke d'Orleans were going to dine at Maisons 
with the Marshal d'Estrees. " I persuaded the duke to con- 
sent," says Campion, " that if the minister should be in the 
carriage of his royal highness, the design should not be exe- 
cuted ; but he said that, if he were alone, he must die. In the 
morning, he caused horses to be prepared, and remained in the 
Capucins with Beaupuis, near the hotel de Yendome, posting 
a footman in the street to inform him when the cardinal should 
pass, and enjoining on me to stay with the conspirators assem- 
bled daily by my orders at the Angel, (the name of a cabaret,) 

* See La Jeunesse de Madame de Longueville^ chap, ii., p. 1V8, and 
chap, iii., p. 233. This, probably, is the same party of pleasure which 
Scarron describes, vol. vii., p. 178, Voyage de la Reinea La Barre. 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 148 

in the Rue Saint-Honore, near the hotel de Yendome, and, if 
the cardinal should go without the Duke d'Orleans, to mount 
together with all these gentlemen, and attack him when pass- 
ing the Capucins. " I was in the utmost anxiety," adds Cam- 
pion, " until, on seeing the carriage of the Duke d'Orleans 
pass, I perceived the cardinal in the back with hira." 

Finally, the irritation of Beaufort having been carried to 
its height by the banishment of Madame de Montbazon, which 
without question took place on the 22d of August ; ' and spur- 
red on moreover by Madame de Chevreuse, by passion, and 
by a false sense of honor, the duke himself became impatient for 
action. Seeing that in the daytime he constantly encountered 
difficulties the cause of which he was very far from divining, 
he resolved to strike the blow during the night, and arranged 
an ambuscade which Campion has described to us. The car- 
dinal went every evening to the palace of the queen, and re- 
turned quite late. They resolved to attack him on his return 
between the Louvre and the hotel de Cleves. Horses were to 
be in readiness at some neighboring inn, and the duke himself 
was to stay there with Beaupuis and Ca'upion while the minister 
was with the queen. As soon as he departed, the three were 
to advance and summon the others, who, meanwhile, were to re- 
main mounted on the quay, by the side of the river, near the 
Louvre. All this could easily be done under cover of the 
night, without awakening any suspicion. 

Reflect that he who furnishes these precise details was one 
of the principal conspirators, that he writes at a sufficient dis- 
tance from the event, in safety, and, let us say once more, 
disinterestedly, fearing nothing more from Mazarin who has 
just died, and expecting nothing from him ; reflect that in 
speaking as he does, he accuses his own brother ; that, though 
he doubtless attributes to himself laudable intentions and even 

^ See in La Je2cnesse de Madame de Longueville, chap, iii., p. 226, the 
lettre de cachet addressed to Madame de Montbazon. 



144 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FliEXCH COURT 

some good deeds, he nevertheless confesses that he had entered 
into the plot, and that, if the execution had tak^n place, he 
would have shared in it, by fiofhting at the side of Beaufort. 
The suit instituted before parliament having been broken off 
for want of proofs. Campion did not suppose that Mazarin had 
ever known '■ the circumstances of the plot, nor who they were 
that knew it to the bottom and were concerned in it.'' He 
says also that, " now that the cardinal is dead, there is no longer 
any fear of injuring any one by telling things as they are." 
He does not, therefore, defend himself; he believes himself 
sheltered from all pursuit, and he only writes to relieve his 
conscience. Now what he says is precisely the same that Ma- 
zarin, on his side, had drawn from his various informants. 

We have seen what importance Mazarin attached to the 
arrest of D'Avancourt and De Brassy, and what art he used in 
spreading the report that they had disclosed nothing in their 
examination, in order to remove all anxiety from those whom 
they might have compromised, and thus to draw them to Paris, 
where they would not fail to be taken. Henri de Campion 
assures us that he was especially in question, and really seems 
to be translating into French one of the Italian passages of the 
Carnets. " Avancourt and Brassy were taken to the Bastille," 
says he, " where they deposed that I had summoned them 
several times in behalf of the Duke de Beaufort for the in- 
terests of Madame de Montbazon as I had told them. This 
furnished no pretext for examinirjg the duke, as they confessed 
that he had not spoken to them ; he did not fail, therefore, to 
deny having given the orders which I had carried to them in 
his behalf; it was evident from this, that his trial could no*- 
be proceeded with until I had been taken, and matter found 
from my own depositions whereon to question him and to em- 
barrass us both, and thus to discover some trace of the affair. 
The proofs of this conspiracy were of essential importance to 
the cardinal, who, wishing only to establish himself in the 
government, and affecting to do so by gentleness, was. very 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 145 

sorry to be obliged, in the beginning, to do violence to one of 
the greatest men of the kingdom for his private interest, with- 
out showing a reason which compelled him to treat the duke 
with such rigor. In despair at being unable to convince the 
others of that of which he himself was fully certain, he wished 
much to have me in his hands. He judged, however, that it 
was necessary to give me time to reassure myself in order to 
seize me with greater facility." 

We can add to all this that Henri de Campion, after being 
pursued and closely pressed in his retreat at Anet, the house 
of the Duke de Vendome, having fled from France to Kome 
to find his friend, the Count de Beaupuis, recounts the perse- 
vering eflbrts which Mazarin made to obtain the extradition 
of the latter, the resistance of Pope Innocent X., and the 
regard which he had for Beaupuis when he was forced to 
place him in the Chateau Saint-Ange ; facts which, being 
found both in the Carnets and letters of Mazarin and in the 
memoirs of Henri de Campion, place the sincerity of the 
movements of the cardinal and the exactness of his informa- 
tion beyond a doubt. 

Is not this sufficient to reduce to nothing the interested 
doubts of La Eochefoucauld and the impassioned denials of 
the chief of the Fronde, the very spiritual but very unvera- 
cious Cardinal de Retz, the most bitter and the most obstinate 
of all the enemies of Mazarin? As to ourselves, it seems to 
us either that there is no longer any reliance to be placed 
upon history, or that we must henceforth regard it as a point 
fully demonstrated that there was a plot for the assassination 
of Mazarin which was foiled, that this plot was originated by 
Madame de Chevreuse and in some sort forced upon Beaufort 
by her and Madame de Montbazon, that Beaufort's principal 
accomplices were the Count de Beaupuis and Alexandre de 
Campion, that Henri de Campion afterwards entered into the 
affair at the urgent solicitation of the duke, as well as two 
other officers of a subordinate rank, that during the month 
7 



146 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

of August there were several attempts at its execution, the 
final one of which was made after the exile of Madame de 
Montbazon on the last of August or rather the first of Sep- 
tember, and that this last attempt only failed through circum- 
stances wholly independent of the will of the conspirators. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 147 



CHAPTEE y. 

September, 1643-1 6*7 9. 

Failure of the Conspiracy. — Arrest of Beaufort and exile of Madame de Chevreuse 
to Anjou. — New intrigues. — Madame de Chevi-euse fears imprisonment, and quits 
France for the third time in 1647. — Her capture and subsequent release by the 
English Puritans. — She takes refuge at Liege.— Eeturns to Paris in 1649. — Her role 
in the Fronde. — Her reconciliation with the queen and with Mazarin. — She con- 
tributes to the downfall of Fouquet and the rise of Colbert. — Her death in 1679. 

What of the last plan of assassination formed against Mazarin 
— the nocturnal ambuscade, so well arranged for the 1st 
of September, 1643, did it also fail? In answer, without 
stopping to discuss the conjectures of Henri de Campion, we 
will confine ourselves to saying that Mazarin, who was on his 
guard, avoided the destined blow by staying away from the 
queen's palace on the evening when he was to have been stabbed 
on bis return from the Louvre. The next morning, the scene was 
changed. The rumor was spread that the prime minister had 
narrowly escaped being slain by Beaufort and his friends on 
the night before, but that fortune had declared itself in his 
favor. A project of assassination, especially when it has failed, 
always excites extreme indignation, and he who has escaped a 
great danger and seems destined to come off victorious, has no 
difficulty in finding supporters. A host of men who would, 
jDerhaps, have seconded Beaufort had he been successful, came 
now to offer their services and their swords to the cardinal, 
and in the morning he repaired to the Louvre escorted by 
'^^hree hundred noblemen. 

For some days past, Mazarin had felt that it was necessary at 



148 SECEET HISTOEY OF THE FREi? ;ri COUKT 

all risks to clear up his position and to for'je the queen to d.'^- 
clare lierself openly. The moment was a d icisive one. If thr 
danger which he had just shunned and wl-icL was even no\\ 
suspended over his head was not sufficient wO drew vhe queen 
from her indecision, it was because she had no love for him : 
and Mazarin well knew that in the midst of th^ dangers that 
surrounded him, his whole power lay in the a(^e5t:ons of the 
queen, and that on her depended both his present and hie 
future safety. Thus, either through policy or through sincere 
passion, he always addressed himself to the heart of Anne of 
Austria, and he soliloquized thus at the outset of the contest : 
" If I thought the queen only made use of me through neces- 
sity, without having any personal regard for me, I would not 
stay here three days." ^ But, as we have sufficiently proved, 
Anne of Austria loved Mazarin. Every day, on comparing 
him with his rivals, she appreciated him the more. She ad- 
mired the precision and clearness of his intellect, his subtlety 
and his penetration, the capacity for labor which enabled him 
to bear the weight of the government with almost superhuman 
ease, his keen perception, his consummate prudence, and, at the 
same time, the judicious energy of his resolutions. She saw 
the affairs of France everywhere prospering in his firm and 
able hands. The cardinal had had no share, it is true, in 
the great battle which had just inaugurated the new reign with 
so much eclat ; but he had had much to do with the success 
which followed it and which proved to astonished Europe that 
the day of Kocroy was not merely a happy accident. When 
every one in the council was opposed to the siege of Thionville, 
when M. the Prince himself was averse to it, when Turenne, 
being consulted, dared not declare himself in its favor, it was 
Mazarin who had insisted with more than usual vehemence 



^ III. Garnet, p. 10, in Spanisli, " Sy yo creyera lo que dicen que S. 
M. se sierve di mi per necessidad, sin tener alguna inclinatipn, no pararia 
aqui tres dias." 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAKIX. 149 

that they should profit by the victory of Rocroy, and brhig 
France to the banks of the Rhine. The first proposition"", 
without doubt, came from the young conqueror, but to Mazarin 
belongs the credit of comprehending it, sustaining it, and 
securing its ultimate triumph. If never had prime minister 
been served by such a general, never either had general been 
served by such a prime minister ; and thanks to both, on the 
-11th of August, while messieurs, the Importants, were em- 
ploying their talents in offering a base affront to the noble 
sister of the hero who had just saved France and was now on 
the point of extending its territories — while they were display- 
ing their eloquence in the salons or whetting their daggers in 
dark cabals, Thionville, then one of the chief strongholds of 
the Empire, surrendered after an obstinate defence, thus ena- 
bling our armies to march to the assistance of Guebriant, 
cover Alsatia, cross the Rhine, and go to cope with Mercy. 
The regency of Anne of Austria was opening under the most 
brilliant auspices. Yet, notwithstanding all this, the minister 
to whom the queen owed so much, instead of obtruding him- 
self on her and pretending to a right to rule her, was at her 
feet, lavishing attentions, respect, and affection on her such as 
she never before had known. Far from perceiving any re- 
semblance to the imperious and moody Richelieu, she could 
recall with pleasure the words of Louis XIII. when he pre- 
sented Mazarin to her for the first time in 1639 or 1640, " He 
will please you, Madame, because he resembles Buckingham." 
But he was a Buckingham of a very different stamp. She 
could not but have shuddered when Mazarin placed before her 
eyes all the proofs of the odious conspiracy that had been 
formed against him. There must have been full explanations 
between them. More than ever he must have urged her to 
throw off the mask,= to sacrifice the circumspection which she 
had studied to preserve to what was now become a manifest 

^ II. Garnet, p. 65 : " Quitarse la maschera." 



150 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

Decessity, to brave the censures of a few devotees, and in short 
to give him permission to defend his life. Hitherto, Anne of 
Austria had hesitated for reasons which are self-evident. The 
insolence of Madan)e de Montbazon had already irritated her 
greatly ; the conviction which she now acquired of the numer- 
ous attempts at aSvSassination which had failed by chance, and 
which at any time might be renewed, at length decided her, 
and it is at the close of the month of August that we must fix 
the positive date of the declared, public, and unrivalled ascend- 
ency of Mazarin over Anne of Austria. He had never been 
displeasing to her ; her partiality for him commenced in the 
month preceding the death of Louis XIII. ; in the month of 
May she appointed him prime minister, partly from regard 
and more from policy ; this regard increased by degrees until 
it grew strong enough to resist all attacks on it ; these attacks, 
by proceeding to the utmost violence, and making her fear for 
his life, precipitated the victory of the happy cardinal, and on 
the day after the nocturnal ambuscade in which he was to 
perish, Mazarin became the absolute master of the heart of the 
queen, and more powerful than ever Kichelieu had been after 
the day of Dupes. 

We have sought in vain in the Garnets of Mazarin for some 
traces of the explanations which Mazarin must have had with 
the queen at this critical juncture. These explanations proba- 
bly were not such as to be so easily forgotten as to require one 
to keep notes of them. However, we find an obscure passage 
written in Spanish, from which we glean the following words : 
" I ought no longer to have any doubts, since the queen, in an 
excess of goodness, has told me that nothing can deprive me of 
the post near her person which she has done me the favor to give 
me ; notwithstanding, as fear is the inseparable companion of 
affection," ' etc. About this time, Mazarin being somewhat 

^ III. Carnet, p. 45 : " mas contodo esto siendo el temor un com- 

pagnero inseparabile dell' affection," etc. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 151 

indisposed by reason of bis labors and cares, and suffering from 
the jaundice, wrote this line which is very short, but which fur- 
nishes food enough for thought : " The jaandlce, fruit of ex- 
treme love." ^ 

Madame de Motteville was on duty near Queen Anne, 
when, at the report of the abortive attempt at assassination, 
the courtiers hastened to the Louvre to protest their devotion. 
The queen, greatly excited, said to her,'^ '' You shall see before 
twice twenty-four hours have passed, how I will avenge myself 
for the tricks which these false friends have played on me." 
*' Never," says Madame de Motteville, " will the memory of 
these few words be effaced from my mind ; I saw at that mo- 
ment from the fire which burned in the eyes of the queen, and 
from the things which happened in truth on the same evening 
and the next day, what a sovereign is when she is in anger, 
and how capable she is of doing all that she wills." If the 
faithful maid of honor had been less discreet, she might have 
added : especially when the sovereign is a woman, and in love. 

Mazarin had said : ^ " The plots against me will never 
cease so long as my enemies see near her Majesty a powerful 
party declared against me, and capable of gaining the mind of 
the queen if any defeat should happen to me." The over- 
throw of this party was demanded by Mazarin and granted by 
Anne of Austria, and the most energetic measures were imme- 
diately resolved on. 

That which was of all others the most pressing, and which 
could not be deferred for a single day, was to screen himself 
from all new assassins, and to profit by the first burst of popu- 

^ IV. Garnet, p. 3 : " La giallezza cagionata d£i, soverchio amore." 

"^ Memoires, vol. i., p. 185. 

^ III. Carnet, p. 93 and last : "Ogniuno mi dice che li disegni contra 
me non cesseranno, finche si vedra che appresso di S. M. vi e un potente 
partito contro di me, e capace d'acquistar lo spirito di S. M. quando mi 
Bucceda una disgrazia." 



152 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

lar indignation against the author of this plot and those who 
had shared in it. Now the apparent author of the plot was 
the Duke de Beaufort, aided by his principal officers together 
with some gentlemen in the service of the Vendomes. It 
was necessary, therefore, to arrest Beaufort and to bring him 
to trial. One may judge from this of the authority which 
Mazarin had gained, and how far Anne of Austria might one 
day be induced to go to defend a minister who was so dear to 
her. Before the death of Louis XIII., the Duke de Beaufort 
had been the man in whom the queen had most confided, and 
for some time he had been thouo;ht destined to fill the role of 
favorite. Since then, he had greatly injured his cause by his 
presumption and his evident want of ability, and, most of all, 
by his public intrigue with Madame de Montbazon ; but the 
queen still retained a great weakness for him, and to sign an 
order for his arrest at the end of three months, was a great 
step, necessary, it is true, but still extreme, and giving a mani- 
fest proof of an entire change in her heart and her intimate 
relations. Even the dissimulation which she uses in this afikir, 
marks the deliberate firmness of her resolution. 

The second day of September is truly memorable in the 
history of Mazarin, and we may also say in that of France, 
for it witnessed the consolidation of royalty, shaken by the 
death of Richelieu and of Louis XIIL, and the defeat of the 
party of the Importants. They did not rise again until the 
period of the Fronde, five years after, when they reappeared 
still the same, with the same designs and the same policy, and, 
after raising fierce and withering storms, were broken anew 
against the genius of Mazarin and the invincible fidelity of 
Anne of Austria. 

On the morning of the 2d of Sep ember, Paris and the 
court were filled with commotion at the report of the ambus- 
cade which had been lying in wait for Mazarin the night be- 
fore between the Louvre and the hotel de Cleves. The five 
conspirators who had shared in it with Beaufort, namely, the 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 158 

Count de Beaupuis, Alexandre and Henri de Campion, Brillei 
and Lie, had fled and were in safety, Beaufort and Madame 
de Clievreuse could not follow tlieir example ; to fly for them 
would have been to denounce themselves. The intrepid duch- 
ess did not hesitate, therefore, to appear at court as usual ; 
and at the soiree of the 2d of September, she was found at 
the side of the queen with another person, a very different 
enemy of Mazariu, a stranger to these dark intrigues and even 
incapable in her innocence of giving credence to them, the 
pious and noble Madame de Hautefort. As for the duke, 
with his usual unconcern and bravery, he went in the morn- 
ing to the chase, and in the evening, as was his custom, to pay 
his homage to the queen. When entering the Louvre, he met 
his mother and his sister, Madame de Vendome and the Duch- 
ess de Nemours, who had been with the queen the whole day 
and had perceived her agitation. They did all that they could 
to prevent him from entering, and begged him to conceal him- 
self, at least for a time. Without discomposure, he replied to 
them as formerly to the Duke de Guise, " They dare not touch 
me," and entered the presence of the queen, who received 
him with the best possible grace, and asked him all sorts of 
questions concerning the chase, " as if," says Madame de 
Motteville,^ "she had nothing else on her mind." On the ar- 
rival of the cardinal, she rose and told him to follow her. It 
seemed as if she wished to hold a private council in her cham- 
ber. She proceeded thither, followed only by the cardinal. 
At the same time, the Duke de Beaufort, on attempting to de- 
part, encountered Guitaut, the captain of the guards, who ar- 
rested him, and commanded him to follow him in the name of 
the king and queen. The prince, without seeming at all aston- 
ished, gazed at him fixedly, and said, " Yes, I will do so; but 
this, I confess, is somewhat curious." Then, turning to Ma- 
dame de Chevreuse and Madame de Hautefort, who were there 

^ Vol. i., p. 185. 



154 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

conversing together, he said to them, " Ladies, you see that the 
queen arrests me." " The next morning,'' continues Madame 
de Motteville, " while the queen was at her toilette, she did 
two of her maids and myself the honor to say to us that two 
or three days before, being at Vincennes, where M. de Cha- 
vigny had given her a magnificent collation, she had seen the 
Dake de Beaufort in a very merry mood, and that a thought 
of pity had suddenly crossed her mind, and she had said to 
herself involuntarily, ' Alas ! in three days, perhaps, this poor 
boy will be here again, a prisoner, when he will not laugh.' 
And Filandre, the first waiting-maid, has assured me that the 
queen wept that evening on retiring." The good maid of 
honor, always careful to conceal or to deny all that might in- 
jure her mistress, and to point out every thing that may place 
her in a favorable light, delights here in displaying her gentle- 
ness and her humanity. We see above all a profound dissim- 
ulation in the conduct of Anne of Austria which even Ma- 
dame de Motteville cannot fail to remark. It is evident that 
every thing was concerted in advance between the queen and 
Mazarin ; and if the tears which she shed on this occasion 
showed how much it cost her to imprison an old friend, they 
also proved how dear the new friend must have been to have 
obtained such a sacrifice. 

The next morning, the Duke de Beaufort was conducted a 
prisoner to that same chateau of Vincennes where he had been 
but a few days before to promenade and to partake of a colla- 
tion with the queen. The people of Paris, always friends to 
bold enterprises wJien successful, were in nowise excited by 
the disgrace of him whom they would one day adore ; and on 
Feeing the future king of the faubourgs and the market places 
pass on the road to Vincennes, they applauded, much to Ma- 
zarin's satisfaction, and cried with exultation, " Here is the 
man who tried to disturb our peace."' ' The most dangerous 

^ III. Carnet, p. 88 : " Tutto il popolo gode e diceva: eccol^ quello 
chc voleva tuibur il nostro riposo ! " 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 155 

of the Importants received orders to withdraw from Paris. 
Montresor, Bethune, Saint-Ybar, Yaricarville, and some 
others, were confined in the country under strict surveillance, 
or even forced to quit France. The Vendomes were com- 
manded to retire to Anet ; ^ and the chateau d'Anet soon be- 
coming what the hotel de Yendome had been in Paris, — the 
asylum of the conspirators, — Mazarin demanded them of the 
Duke Cesar, who took good care not to deliver them. The 
cardinal was compelled almost regularly to besiege the chateau. 
He threatened to enter it by force, to seize the accomplices 
of Beaufort, and no longer to endure the scandal of a prince 
who braved justice and the laws with impunity ; he believed 
himself in the right, and was about to take energetic measures 
when the Duke de Vendome decided to quit France himself, 
and repaired to Italy to await the fall of Mazarin, as he had 
formerly awaited that of Bichelieu in England. 

The arrest of Beaufort, the dispersion of his accomplices, 
his friends, and his family, was the first, the indispensable 
measure which Mazarin needed to take to face the most press- 
ing danger. But what would it avail him to strike the arm 
if the head were permitted to remain, — if Madame de Chev- 
reuse still remained assiduous in her attendance at court, lav- 
ishing attentions and homage on the queen, and thus retaining 
and making the most of the remains of her former favor to 
sustain and secretly encourage the malcontents, to inspire 
them with her confidence, and to raise up new conspiracies ? 
She still held in her hand the scarce-broken thread of the plot, 
and by her side was a man too experienced to suffer himself to 
be compromised in such intrigues, but quite ready to turn 
them to his profit, and whom Madame de Chevreuse was 

^ Mad;\me de Motteville, vol. i., p. 190 : " Orders were sent to M. and 
Madame de Vendome and to M. de Mercoeur to leave Paris instantly. The 
Duke de Vendome at first excused himself on the plea of illness, but to 
hasten his departure and make his journey more convenient, the queen 
sent him a litter." 



156 SECEET HISTOKY OF THE FRENCH COUKT 

studying to sliow to the queen, to France, and to Europe, as iti 
every way capable of conducting the affairs of State. Mazarin, 
therefore, did not hesitate ; and on the third of September, 
the same day of the arrest of Beaufort, Chateauneuf was in- 
vited to make his adieux to the queen, and then to retire to his 
government of Touraine.^ The ex-keeper of the seals of Riche- 
lieu found that it was at least something to have been honor- 
ably extricated from disgrace and to have regained the high 
rank which he had formerly occupied in the service of the 
king, together with the government of a large province. His 
ambition, it is true, soared much higher, but he postponed its 
accomplishment, obeyed the orders of the queen, adroitly re- 
mained friends with her, and kept on very good terms with 
her minister while waiting an occasion to supplant him. He 
waited a long time, but he did not die without having seen 
again, for a moment at least, the power which an insane love 
had caused him to lose, and which a faithful and unwearied 
friendship again restored to him.^ 

Madame de Chevreuse had not the wisdom of Chateau- 
neuf. She did not know how to put a good face on a bad 
play, or else she was too far pledged to quit the party so soon. 
La Chatre, who was one of her most intimate friends and who 
saw her every day, relates ^ that the same evening on which 
Beaufort was arrested at the Louvre, " her Majesty said to her 
that she believed her innocent of the designs of the prisoner, 

^ III. Carnet, p. 40, " Permissione a Chatonof di veder la regina et 
ordine di andar in Turena." Olivier d'Ormesson, in his Journal, gives 
this order under date of September 3, 1643. 

"^ Chateauneuf bad the seals from March, 1650, when Mazarin exiled 
himself, until April, 1651. He died in 1653, aged sixty-three years. His 
tomb and that of his family might formerly have been seen in the cath- 
edral of Bruges ; nothing now remains but his statue in marble, with 
that of his father, Claude de I'Aubespiae, and his mother, Marie de La 
Chatre, executed by Philippe de Buister. 

^ Mernoires, vol. LI. of the Coll. Petitot, p. 244. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 157 

but that notwithstanding she deemed it proper that she should 
quietly retire to Dampierre, and after a brief stay there, should 
withdraw to Touraine." Madame de Chevreuse was really 
forced to go to Dampierre, but instead of remaining tranquil 
there, she moved heaven and earth to save those who were 
compromised in her behalf. She received Alexandre de 
Campion at her house,' and furnished him with money and 
every thing necessary to conceal him safely from the pursuit of 
the cardinal. Fearless for herself and accustomed to dangers, 
she troubled herself chiefly concerning the fate of her friends, 
and knowing that several of them were at Anet, she continually 
communicated with them. She even commenced to knot 
new intrigues,^ and found means of forwarding a letter to the 
queen.^ Message upon message was addressed to her to hasten 
her departure.* Both Montagu and La Porte were sent to 
her.^ She received them haughtily, and delayed under various 
pretexts. We have seen that on going to meet her, on her 
return from Brussels, Montagu had offered, in behalf of the 
queen and of Mazarin, to pay the debts which she had con- 
tracted during so many years of exile ; she had already re- 
ceived large sums for this purpose, and she would not depart 
until after the queen had performed all her promises.^ She 

^ Recueily etc., p. 133 : "I could not desire a greater consolation in 
my misfortunes than the permission which you give me to go to Dam- 
pierre ; the fear which you express lest I should have been surprised on 
the road is very flattering, but I shall take such good care of myself that 
this will not happen to me. I shall not travel by day, and the nights are 
60 dark that I shall not be seen by any one." 

" IV. C'arnef, p. 1 : " Hebert, mestre d'hotel di Mma. di Cheverosa, tre 
volte in tre giorni a Aneto d^ M. di Vendomo." 

^ IV. Garnet, p, 3 : " Lettera per altra stada di Cheverosa alia 
regina." 

* III. Carnet, pp. 81 and 82: " Allontanar Cheverosa che f^ mill ca- 
balle." 

^ La Chatre, ibid. See also an inedited letter to La Porte, Biblio- 
THEQUE Nationale, II., portfoHos of Doctor Valant, p. 107. 

' III. Carpet, p. 86 : '*Mma. di Cheverosa sortita havendo somme con 



158 SECRET HISTOET OF THE FEEN^CH COURT 

quitted the court and Paris trembling, and with grief in her 
ROul, like Hannibal quitting Italy. She felt that the court, 
Paris, and the heart of the queen, were the true battle-fields, 
and that to withdraw was to yield the victory to the enemy. 
Her retreat was a signal of mourning to all the Gtitholic party, 
to the friends of peace and of the Spanish alliance, and, on the 
contrary, of public rejoicing to the friends of the Protestant 
union. The Count d'Estrade even came to the Louvre in 
behalf of the Prince of Orange, by whom he was accredited, to 
thank the regent officially.' 

Madame de Chevreuse repaired to her estate of Yerger, 
between Tours and Angers. The deep solitude around her 
rendered the feeling of her defeat still more bitter. She met 
Montresor who had also retired to Touraine, and had several 
interviews with him.^ She wrote to Paris to the Duke de 

siderabili di denari contanti. S. M. sa ben li suoi disegni, e che se 11 da 
200 mil lire, come pretende, vi havr^ havute 400 mil lire." Journal of 
Olivier d' Ormesson: "September 19, I heard Monsieur ask at the coun- 
cil if the two hundred thousand livres which had been promised Madame 
de Chevreuse had been paid her."La Chatre, ibid. : " She persisted in not 
departing until she had received some money that had been promised her." 

' Archives of foreign affairs, France, vol. cv., letter of Gaudin to 
Servien, October 31, 1643 : " M. d'Estrade congratulated her Majesty in 
behalf of the Prince of Orange on the banishment of Madame de Chev- 
reuse, saying that she had shown the good intention which she had 
towards the interest of her allies by this action, as since her arrival 
the said lady had been scheming an advantageous peace, well knowing 
that the Spaniards would willingly yield all which the French had taken, 
provided that one thing might be accorded them, namely, the abandon- 
ment of the Swedes and the Dutch." 

^ Montresor, Memoires, ibid., p, 355 : " The residence of Madame 
de Chevreuse, at Tours, gave me opportunity to see her at times, and al- 
though this was but rarely, I gained more knowledge of her disposition 
and the temperament of her mind than I had ever possessed in the time 
when she was more happy and of greater consideration. Her general de- 
sertion by all those whom she had obliged and who were bound in friend- 
ship and united in interests with her, caused me to feel how little faith 



UNDEK KICHELIEU AND MAZAKIN. 159 

Guise to know if it were true tliat he disapproved of her con- 
duct, and to try his chivalry.^ She corresponded with her 
mother-in-law, Madame de Montbazon, who was banished to 
Kochefort, and the two exiles incited each other to attempt 
every means in their power to overthrow their common ene- 
my.^ Vanquished from within, Madame de Chevreuse" placed 
all her hopes on the side of the foreign powers. She revived 
the correspondence which she had never ceased to maintain 
with England, Spain, and the Netherlands. Her principal 
support, the centre and medium of her intrigues, was Lord 
Goring, the English ambassador to the Court of France, who, 
like his master, and especially like his mistress, belonged to 
the Spanish party.^ Craft, the English gentleman whom we 

can be placed in the men of the present century, as is shown by the state 
in which a person of this rank is found, thus universally forsaken in her 
disgrace ; this increased my desire of rendering my services with greater 
assiduity and tenderness whenever opportunities might offer. I was not 
ignorant that the consequences which might follow the visits I had the 
honor to pay her might injure me and disturb my tranquillity, but the 
esteem and respect which I had for her person and her interests induced 
me to run the risk, always observing the precaution that they should 
not be too frequent, and that there should not be any dissimulation, 
either on her part, or on mine. The reverses with which her whole 
life had been agitated were not yet ended." 

* IV. Carnet^ p. 14. 

^ Ibid., pp! 48 and 49 : "Piu animate che mai et in speranza di far 
qualche cosa contra me con il tempo." 

^ Ibid., pp. 95 and 96: "26 febraio, 1643 (read 1644), I'imbasciator 
Gorino, lega strellissima con Cheverosa e Vandomo et altri della corte e 
fuori. Risolutione di unir questa caballa a Spagnuoli, e disfarsi del car- 
dinale. II suddetto spedisce di continuo a Cheverosa, Yandomo et altri. 
E stato sempre spagnolissimo, et hora piu che mai. Dice che il cardi- 
nale una volta k basso, il detto partito trionfark Giar (Jars), confiden- 
tissimo di Gorino, e sempre in speranza del ritorno di Chatonof, Craft, 
piu bruglione, piu spagnolo, et piu del partito del suddetto. . . Ha rVtto 
mille improperii della regina . . . S. M. faccik scriver una buona lettera 
al Ee e Regina d'Inghiltera dolendosi del procedere de'suoi ministri e di 
quelle scrisse Gorino, etc." 



160 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRElSrCH COURT 

have almost always met in the suite of Madame de Chevreuse, 
agitated noisily for lier, while the Chevalier de Jars intrigued 
secretly for Chateiuneuf. Under the cloak of the English 
enjbassj^, an extensive correspondence was established between 
Madame de Chevreuse, Vendome, Bouillon, and the other 
malcontents/ 

When, in the summer of 1644, the Queen of England came 
to seek an asylum in France, and went to take the waters of 
Bourbon, Madame de Chevreuse passionately desired to be- 
hold again the one who had formerly received her so kindly ; 
and the Queen Henrietta, who, like her mother, Marie de 
Medicis, and Madame de Chevreuse, was of the Catholic and 
Spanish party, would have been rejoiced to have poured out 
her heart into that of so old and so faithful a friend. But 
she did not think hei^self justified in yielding to her inclina- 
tion without the permission of the queen who had accorded 
her so noble a hospitality. Anne of Austria replied courteously 
that her sister the queen was free in all her movements, but 
afterwards caused her to be privately informed through the 
Chevalier Jars that it was not proper for her to receive the 
visits of a person at variance with her Majesty.'' This fresh 
disgrace, added to so many others, urged the irritation of the 
duchess to its height. She redoubled her efforts to throw off 
the yoke that was oppressing her. Mazarin knew and watch- 
ed all her manoeuvres. He caused the arrest of the controller 
of her household at Paris, and also, a short time after, of her 
physician while in the same carriage with her daughter.^ The 
duchess complains loudly of this proceeding in a letter which 

^ iMadame de Motteville, vol. i., p. 238, etc. 

■■^ Cartiet, p. 105 : " S. Maest^ puol diie al commendatore dl Giar e a 
madamigclla di Fvuges clie, sebbenne S. M. per civilt^ ha detto che per 
veder o no M;n;i. di Cli_'vero<!iX non se ne curava, ad ogni niodo la 
regiiia dcUa gvan Bretagna r.on dovrebbe admetter la visita d'uua persona 
che per sua mala condotta ha perdute le grazie di S. M." 

^ Archives of foreign affairs, France, vol. evii., letter of Gaudin to 
Servien, May 81 ; and Montresor, ibid., p. 356. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 161 

she found means to forward to the queen. She asserts 
that Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was forced from her carriage, 
" two archers holding a pistol to her throat, and crying un- 
ceasingly, ' kill her, kill her, and the women who are with 
her I ' '' * She did not fail to protest and to appeal from the 

^ "Tours, November 20, 1644. Madame: Although the only hap- 
piness which I had hoped in the exile from your presence was that of 
meriting your remembrance by the continuance of my duties, I have de- 
prived myself of both, since I have known that this forbearance would be 
to you the more pleasing token of that obedience which I have always 
endeavored to express to your Majesty, rather in that way which I be- 
lieved most in conformity with her wishes than in that which would best 
have satisfied myself. But as your Majesty has assured me that the 
length of this absence would not diminish the goodness which she 
has manifested to the whole world in every thing relating to me, I trust, 
Madame, that, as you have been able to judge of my respect by the time 
during which I have denied myself the satisfaction of these duties, I 
may hope that your Majesty will permit me to have recourse to them 
on occasions important to my repose. I had self-control enough to re- 
strain myself on the first which presented itself in the arrest of my con- 
troller, although you cannot doubt, Madame, in the conviction which I 
have of his innocence, how much I have been pained at feeling that his 
being my domestic has been the sole presumption of his crime. But I 
confess to you that what happened four or five days since in the impris- 
onment of an Italian physician who has been at my house for some time 
past, affects me so closely that I cannot believe myself so unhappy as to 
be refused by your Majesty this vent to my just resentment. This was 
accomplished with violence unheard of in such cases. Having taken an 
occasion when he was in the carriage with my daughter, she was forced 
to alight, two archers holding a pistol to her throat and crying unceas- 
ingly, ' Kill her, kill her, and the women who are with her ! ' This pro- 
ceeding is so extraordinary that as I expect your justice to render me 
satisfaction in the person of my daughter, I dare promise myself that 
your goodness Avill secure me in future from such rencounters ; and 
although I have sufficient reason to rely on my innocence for safety, I 
have had such sad experiences of misfortune that your Majesty will 
not think it strange if I ask it of her with more earnestness, as having 
ordered me to remain in this place where I am deprived of the sole hap- 
piness which I desire in this world, the only consolation which remains 
to me is to possess security for myself and my household, and to be able 



162 SECEET HISTOET OF THE FEENCH COUET 

enmity of Mazarin to the justice of Anne of Austria. But 
the physician who had been arrested and thrown into the Bas- 
tille made confessions which gav^e a clue to some very serious 
matters ; and an officer of the king's guards was despatched to 
Madame de Chevreuse with an order for her retirement to 
Angouleme, together with the charge to conduct her there. In 
Angouleme was a strong chateau which served as a prison of 
state, in which her friend Chateauneuf had been confined tea 
years for her sake. This memory, which was always present 
to the mind of Madame de Chevreuse, filled her with alarm ; 
she feared that this was the retreat to which they wished to 
convey her,^ and, preferring any extremity to a prison, she 
decided to re-engage in the adventures which she had con- 
fronted in 1637, and to take again, for the third time, the 
road to exile. 

But how changed were all the circumstances about her, 
and how she herself was changed ! Her first exile from France 
in 1626, had been one continuous triumph. Young, beautiful, 
and everywhere adored, she had quitted Nancy and the Duke 
of Lorraine, forever submissive to the sway of her charms, 
to return to Paris to trouble the heart of Bichelieu. Her 
flight to Spain in 1637 had been a severer trial ; she had been 
forced to travel through France in disguise, to brave more than 
one peril, and to endure many hardships, to find at the end of 
all this but five long years of impotent agitation. But she 

to pray to God in peace that he may crown you with as much prosperity 
as is desired for your Majesty, Madame, by your most humble and most 
obedient subject, Marie de Rohan." 

^ Montresor, ibid. This affair (of the imprisonment of her phy- 
sician) suffered by a man who was her servant, preceded but a few days 
that which happened to herself. Riquetti, officer of the king's body 
guard, was sent to Tours to carry her the order to retire to Angouleme, 
where he was to conduct her. The fear of being detained there and 
placed in the citadel under a sure guard, made such an impression on 
her mind that she resolved to expose herself to all other perils which 
might happen to her, to avoid that of imprisonment, which she believed 
inevitable if it were not promptly provided against. 



UNDER EICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 163 

was 8till sustained bj youth and by the consciousness of that 
irresistible beauty which won her servants everywhere, even on 
thrones. She had confidence too in the friendship of the 
queen, and she trusted that this friendship would one day re- 
ward her for all her devotion. Now age was beginning to 
make itself felt, and her declining beauty promised her but 
rare conquests. She knew that, in losing the heart of the 
queen, she had lost the greatest part of her prestige in France 
and in Europe. The flight of the Duke de Yendome, soon fol- 
lowed by that of the Duke de Bouillon, had left the Importants 
without any considerable chief. She had learned to her cost 
that Mazarin was quite as adroit and quite as formidable as 
Richelieu. Victory seemed everywhere in league with him. 
Turenne, Bouillon's own brother, solicited the honor of serving 
him, and the Duke d'Enghien gained him battle after battle. 
She knew that the cardinal held proofs within his hands which 
could condemn and imprison her during her whole life. But 
when all abandoned her, this extraordinary woman did not 
abandon herself As soon as the officer Biquetti had sig- 
nified to her the order of which he was the bearer, she took her 
resolution with her accustomed promptness, and accompanied 
by her daughter Charlotte, who had come to join her, and who 
would not quit her, she gained the thickets of the Vendee and 
the solitudes of Brittany by cross-rosds, and asked an asylum 
of the Marquis de Coetquen, a few leagues from Saint-Malo. 
The noble and generous Breton accorded the hospitality which 
he owed to a woman and an unfortunate. She did not abuse 
it, and after having deposited her jewels in his hands, as for- 
merly in those of La Bochefoucauld,^ she embarked with her 

^ She afterwards begged the Marquis de Coetquen to remit her jewels 
to Montrepor, who restored them to a messenger whom she had commis- 
sioned to receive them. But Mazarin was informed of every thing ; he 
knew of the correspondence of the duchess ; . and he attempted to lay- 
hands on the famous jewels, arrested Montresor, and held him more than 
a year in prison. See the Memoirs of Montresor, ibid. Mazarin, so se- 
vere towards Montresor, whom he knew as a dangerous conspirator, 



164 SECEET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COUET 

daughter in the depths of winter, at Saiut-Malo, in a small 
vessel which would take her to Dartmouth, in England, 
whence she intended to pass to Dunkirk and to Flanders. 
But the ships of war of the Parliament were cruising in those 
^arts ; they met and captured the miserable craft, and carried 
her to the Isle of Wight. There Madame de Chevreuse was 
recognized ; and as she was known as the friend of the queen 
of England, the Parliamentarians were disposed to treat her 
harshly and to deliver her to Mazarin. Happily, she found 
that the governor of the Isle of Wight was the same Count 
Pembroke whom she had formerly known. She addressed 
herself to his courtesy,^ and, thanks to his intervention, though 

showed indulgence to the Marquis de Coetquen, whose designs had been 
honorable. In his Lettres Francaises preserved in the Bibliotheque Ma- 
zarine, is the following passage, which does him honor, and which 
Richelieu would not have written. Fol. 376; to M. the Marquis de 
Coetquen, May 7, 1645: "From what you have taken the trouble to 
write to me, I acknowledge the information which you give me concern- 
ing the entrance of Mme. the Duchess de Chevreuse into one of your 
houses. Having conversed upon this with the gentleman whom I send 
back to you, I esteem it superfluous to write here the particulars which I 
have told him. Relying, therefore, on his parole, I shall content myself 
with assuring you that I have received with favor the proofs which you 
give me of your aflTection for the service of the king in this adventure. 1 
have not failed to represent all that I ought to the queen, excusing that 
which has passed hy the reasons which you send me, and by those which 
the said gentleman has narrated, etc." 

^ Archives of foreign affairs, France, vol. cvi., p. 162. Letter of 
Madame de Chevreuse to Count Pembroke, governor of the Isle of 
Wight, April 29, 1645: "Monsieur, The continuation of my misfortunes 
obliging me to quit France in haste to preserve in a neutral country the 
liberty which the power of my enemies wished to take from me in my 
own, the only way by which I found it possible to avoid this disgrace was 
to embark at Saint-Malo to pass into England and thence into Flanders, 
in order to reach the country of Liege, where I might justify my inno- 
cence in safety if I could obtain a hearing, or at least shelter myself from 
the persecution to which the hatred and the artifice of the Cardinal Ma- 
zarin has subjected me for a year and a half past. Having taken pas- 
sage with this design in a bark which I found ready to sail for Dartmouth, 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. 165 

with great difficulty, she obtained passports which permitted 
her to reach Dunkirk, and thence to gain the Spanish Neth- 
erlands/ 

She resided some time at Liege, studying to maintain, and 
to rivet more closely between Lorraine, Austria, and Spain, an 
alliance which was the last resource of the Importants and the 
only foundation of her own credit. But Mazarin had resumed 

where I purposed, on arriving, to send for the passports which I should 
need to go to Dover and thence to embark for Dunkirk, it was captured 
by two captains of the ships of war which are under the authority of the 
ParUament, and brought to this Isle of Wight, of which I have learned 
with much joy that you are governor, assuring myself from your noble- 
ness and your courtesy that you will not refuse the entreaty which I make 
you that you will demand of the gentlemen of the Parliament a pass- 
port to go hence to Dover and thence to embark for Dunkirk, where the 
unhappy state of my affairs urges me to repair without delay. I hope 
the favor from the justice of the gentlemen of the Parliament that they 
will have the goodness not to detain me, as the confidence which I have 
in their generosity, and the resolution which I have taken of never ren- 
dering myself unworthy of receiving its benefits, may justly cause me to 
hope for the boon which I shall impatiently expect on the return of 
the bearer, whom I send expressly for this purpose to London with the 
servant of your lieutenant in this island, from whom you will receive 
a more particular account of the accidents of my voyage. I abridge 
them as much as possible, so as not to w^eary you by too long a letter ; 
and it suffices to show you my need of your aid in my present position 
in order promptly to receive the passport which I ask of the gentlemen of 
the Parliament, and to entreat you to believe that I shall never be fully 
satisfied until I shall have expressed to you by my services that you have 
obliged a person who will be through her whole life, monsieur, your very 
humble and very affectionate servant, Marie de Rohan, Duchess dt 
Chevreuse." 

' Archives of foreign affairs, vol. cix., Gaudin to Servien, May 20, 
1645 : " Advices from England say that Madame de Chevreuse is still at 
the Isle of Wight, and that the Parliament will neither give her vessel 
nor passport to go to Dunkirk, etc." Bibliotheqce Mazarine. French 
Letters of Mazarin, folio 415, July 22, 1645 : " One may judge," says 
Mazarin, " whether we have a great hatred towards Madame de Chev- 
reuse, since, when she was in the power of the English Parliamentarians, 
they offered to surrender her into our hands, which we did not care for." 



166 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT 

ll 

all the designs of Richelieu, and, like him, he strove to detach m 
the Duke of Lorraine from his two allies. The duke was then p 
madly enamored with the beautiful Beatrix de Cusance, Prin- 
cess de Cantecroix. Mazarin endeavored to gain the lady, 
and he proposed to the ambitious and enterprising Charles TV., 
to break with Spain, and to enter into Franche-Comte with 
the aid of France, promising to leave to him all that he should 
acquire.^ He succeeded in bringing into his interest the 
Princess de Phalzbourg, the sister of Charles and the former 
mistress of Puylaurens, but then very much fallen in favor, 
who rendered him a secret and faithful account of all that 
passed about her brother. Mazarin especially demanded to 
be kept informed of the slightest movements of Madame de 
Chevreuse ; he knew that she corresponded with the Duke de 
Bouillon, that she held the Imperial General Piccolomini at 
her disposal through her friend, Madame de Strozzi, and that 
she still preserved all her influence over the Duke of Lorraine, 
despite the charms of the beautiful Beatrix. With the aid 
of the Princess de Phalzbourg, he followed all her movements 
and disputed step by step the possession of the fickle Charles 
lY., — sometimes victorious, but oftener vanquished in this 
uncertain struggle.'^ 

The victory remained with Madame de Chevreuse. Her 
ascendency over Charles IV., born of love but surviving it, 
and stronger than all the new amours of this inconstant 
prince, retained him in the service of Spain, and foiled all the 
projects of Mazarin. By degrees, she again became the soul 
of every intrigue plotted against the French Government. 
She not only combated it from without, but she continually 
excited new difficulties within. Surrounded by a few ardent 
and persevering, refugees, among whom was the Count de Saint- 



^ IV. Carnet, pp. 81 and 82; Carnet, v. pp. 18, 68, and 115. 

* BiBLiOTHEQUE Mazarine, French Letters of Mazarin to the Prin- 
cess de Phalzbourg ; especially those of July 22, 1645 ; of September 30, 
of the same year; of November 11, of December 2, and 23, etc. 



UXDER RICHELIEU AjS^D MAZARIIST. 167 

Ybar, one of the most resolute men of the party, she encourag- 
ed the remnant of the Importants in France, and stirred up 
everywhere the fire of sedition. Passionate, yet always mis- 
tress of herself, she preserved a smooth brow in the midst of 
tempests, at the same time displaying an indefatigable activity 
in surprising the weak sides of the enemy. Availing herself 
equally of the Catholic and the Protestant parties, sometimes 
she meditated a revolt in Languedoc or an invasion in Brit- 
tany ; sometimes, at the least symptom of discontent manifest* 
ed by any important personage, she labored to detach him from 
Mazarin and to win him to her cause. In 1647, her piercing 
eye discerned in the heart of the Congress of Munster some 
signs of a misunderstanding between the French ambassador, 
the Duke de Longueville, and the prime minister, which in fact 
was with difficulty arranged, and to her belongs the mournful 
honor of having froQi that time founded too just hopes on the 
ill-regulated ambition and the variable temper of the Duke 
d'Enghien, quite recently become Prince de Conde/ 

Time advanced, the Fronde broke forth; and the ardent 
duchess rushed again from Brussels in 1649, and brought to her 
friends the support of Spain and of her experience. She was 
then nearly fifty years of age. Years and sorrows had tri- 

^ BiBLiOTHEQUE Mazarine, Fvencli Letters of Mazarin, letter of Sep- 
tember 28, 1645, to the Abbe de La Riviere, folio 453, But the most 
important paper of all, which throws much light on all the intrigues of 
Madame de Chevreuse in 1646 and 1649, and also on the state of public 
sentiment in France on the eve of the Fronde, is a memoir of a Spanish 
agent, whom we have already met in the affair of the Count de Soissons, 
the Abbe de Mercy, — a memoir addressed to the Government of the Neth- 
erlands, in which he shows all that Saint- Ybar, and more especially 
Madame de Chevreuse, might do against Mazarin if they were better sus- 
tained. This piece is entitled; '■'■ Alemoire sur ce qui s'estnegocie et traite 
au voyage de Vabbe de Mercy en HoUande entre lui^ le cotnte de Saint-Ybar 
et Madaine la Duchesse ds Chevreuse. '''' The memoir is dated September 
27, 1647, and is signed P. Ernest de Mercy. It forms a portion of the 
official papers of the Spanish Secretary of State which are to be found at 
Brussels, in the general archives of the kingdom of Belgium. 



168 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRE2^CH COURT 

umplied over her beauty, but she was still graceful, and her 
keen penetration, her decision, her boldness, and her genius, 
remained entire.' 8he had found a last friend in the Mar- 
quis de Laigues,^ captain of the guards of the Duke d' Orleans, 
a man of spirit and of resolution, whom she loved till the end, 
and with whom after the death of M. de Chevreuse in 1657, 
phe probably united her destiny by one of those mariages de 
conscience then very much in fashion.^ We cannot be expected 
to follow her step by step, and to entangle ourselves in the 
mazes of the Fronde. It suffices to say that she enacted one 
of the principal roles in it. Attached to the heart of the 
party and to its essential interests, she guided it through every 
danger with incomparable address and energy. After reljing 
so long upon Spain, she knew how to separate from it at the 
right time. She preserved a powerful influence over the 
Duke of Lorraine, and it is not difficult to recognize her hand 
concealed behind the ambiguous and often hostile movements 

^ Retz, who ends by detesting Madame de Chevreuse because she re- 
fused to follow him in his last extravagant project, pretends that, in 1649, 
she no longer possessed even a vestige of beauty. However, she still re- 
tained it in 1657, as may be seen from the portrait of Ferdinand EUe, en- 
graved by Balechou, in the series of Odieuvre, in which she is represent- 
ed as a widow, with a fine, expressive, and aristocratic face. 

^ The Marquis de Laigues, having gone to Brussels in 1649, to treat 
with Spain in the name of the Frondeurs, found Madame de Chevreuse 
there and formed an intimacy with her, as Alexandre de Campion had 
done in 1641. Retz pretends that Avhen Laigues quitted Paris, Mon- 
tresor induced him to endeavor to please Madame de Chevreuse, who 
could do much with the Spanish Government, and to reach her head 
through her heart. Laigues was young and pleasing in his person ; he 
succeeded, and both became so strongly attached that they never sepa- 
rated. Note the only fact, very uncertain however, since it rests on a 
single witness, whence Retz draws his admirable conclusion, which does 
as much honor to his logic as to his delicacy, "that it was not difficult 
to persuade Madame de Chevreuse to accept a handsome lever." 

^ Memoirs of the younger Brienne, published by M. Bari'iere, vol ii., 
chap, xix., p. 178: "The Marquis de Laigues, who was certainly the 
niari de conscience of the duchess." 



UNDIIR RICHELIEU AND MAZAEIN. 169 

of Charles IV. She took the principal part in the three great 
resolutions which express and recapitulate the whole history 
of the Fronde from the battle of Paris and the peace of Ruel ; 
in 1650, she was of the opinion that they should prefer Maza- 
rin to Conde, and dared to adviee them to lay hands on the 
victor of Rocroy and of Leas ; in 1651, a moinent of wavering 
on the part of Mazarin, who nearly lo&t sight of her in his own 
intrigues and in a too complicated policy, together with the 
pressure of a strong personal interest, the well-founded hope 
of marrying her daughter Charlotte to the Prince de Conti, 
brought her back to Conde and procured the deliverance of 
the princes; and in 1652, the manifold errors of Conde re- 
stored her forever to the queen and to Mazarin. She did not 
participate in the folly of E,etz — that of thinking a third party 
possible in the midst of revolution, and dreaming of a govern- 
ment shared between Mazarin and Conde and supported by 
a worn-out parliament and the fickle Duke d'Orleans. Her 
political instinct taught her that, after so much agitation, a 
firm and steady rule was the greatest need of France. Maza- 
rin, who, like Eichelieu, had never combated her but with re- 
gret, sought and often gladly followed her counsels.* She 
took her place loftily by the side of royalty ; she served it, 
and it served her in its turn. After Mazarin, she spied out 
Colbert who was not yet in the ministry, and labored for his 
elevation and the downfall of Fouquet,^ and the proud but 

^ See in the Bibliotheque Rationale, /end's (^az^mere, No. 2,799, 
an inedited collection of the autograph and cypher letters of Mazarin 
to the Abbe Fouquet, brother of the future superintendent, in which 
he unceasingly entreats the advice and good offices of Madame de 
Chevreuse. 

"^ Memoirs of the younger Brienne, vol. i., chap, vii., p. 218: " She 
formed an alliance with the Colberts, and married her grandson to the 
daughter of a man who would never have thought, ten years before, of 
making his daughters duchesses. For this, it was necessary to crush 
poor M. Fouquet, and she sacrificed him without scruple to the ambition 
of his competitor. I shall presently relate this intrigue with new details. 



170 SECEET HISTOEY OF THE FEENCH COUET 

judicious Marie de Rohan gave her grandson, the Duke de 
Chevreuse, the friend of Beauvilliers and of Fenelon, to the 
daughter of a plebeian of genius, the greatest administrator 
that France ever possessed. She easily obtained all that she 

Madame de Chevreuse conducted it with ardor ; it was the last of her 
life." Vol. ii , chap, iv., p. 178: "The Duchess de Chevreuse was 
at Fontainebleu with the Marquis de Laigues concerning this affair, (that 
of Fouquet.) She had forced the latter to ally himself with M. Colbert, 
the minister, who was then only controller of the finances. Having pre- 
served sufficient ascendency over the mind of the queen-mother, she 
caused her to consent to the overthrow of M. Fouquet, although her 
Majesty had a friendship for him, because he had always willingly paid 
her dowry, together with some considerable pensions which the king, her 
son, had bestowed on her after his majority." To support these facts, 
we find among the papers of Fouquet which were in the famous casket, 
and which are now preserved in the armory of Baluze at the Bibliotheqiie 
Nationale, various letters of a secret agent of the superintendent, warn 
ing him that Madame de Chevreuse is working against him, and is en- 
deavoring to deprive him of the protection of the queen-mother. This 
agent, who must have been a nobleman of the court, had indirectly 
gained the confessor of Anne of Austria, and learned through him of the 
manoeuvres of Madame de Chevreuse. Letter of June 28, 1661: "Ma- 
dame de Chevreuse continues closely to question this good man, (the con- 
fessor.) but this will avail nothing, and you shall be precisely informed 
of every thing that she shall say to him." Letter of July 21 : "I have 
not been able to learn any thing more particular of Madame de Chevreuse, 
but the good confessor came here a short time since to see the person 
of whom I have had the honor to speak to you already. He related 
to him all that he knew, and told him, among other things, that some 
time ago Madame de Chevreuse questioned him closely, that she sent 
Laigues to him several times, and that she talked in a very devout strain 
to him in order to gain him, but above all, Monseigneur, that she talked 
against you. I did not hear in what manner, for this good man said 
that he had related it to M. Felisson. It will suffice, therefore, for me 
to warn you that this good cordelier complains a little because you 
cited him on making an explanation with the queen-mother, saying that 
you told her that she went to Dampierre among your enemies, who said 
things against you to her, and when she denied that she had ever been 
spoken to in this manner, you told her to ask the father-confessor ; and 
that the queen said to him the next day that she could not comprehend 



UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN. I7l 

desired both for herself and her family; she attained the 
height of credit and of consideration, and, like her two illustri- 
ous competitors, Madame de Longueville and the Princess Pala- 
tine, she ended in profound tranq^uillity one of the most restless 
careers of the seventeenth century. 

It is said that, towards the close of her days, she too felt 
the influence of grace, and turned her eyes, wearied with the 
mobility of earthly things, towards Heaven. She had seen all 
those whom she loved or hated fall successively around her — 
Eichelieu and Mazarin, Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria, the 
Queen of England and her daughter, the amiable Henriette, 
Chateauneuf and the Duke of Lorraine. Her much loved 
daughter had expired in her arms in the midst of the Fronde. 
He who had first turned her aside from the path of duty, the 
handsome and frivolous Holland, had mounted the scaffold of 
Charles I., and her last lover, the Marquis de Laigues, though 
much younger than she, had preceded her to the tomb. She 
perceived that she had given her soul to vanity ; and wishing 
to mortify the feeling that had proved her ruin, the haughty 
duchess became the humblest of women. She renounced all 
grandeur ; she quitted her magnificent hotel in the Faubourg 
Saint-Germain, built by Muet, and retired to the country, not 



how you knew every thing, and that you had spies everywhere." Let- 
ter of August 2: "Madame de Chevreuse has been here, and I have 
been promised information in respect to things which are of the greatest 
importance to you concerning this affair, the journey to Brittany, (the 
journey to Brittany and the arrest of Fouquet took place in the begin- 
ning of September,) certain secret resolutions of the king, and the meas- 
ures taken against you." Letter of August 4 : " Madame de Chevreuse 
saw the confessor of the queen-mother twice while she was here. Yet 
this simpleton conceals this from M. Pelisson, who, on visiting him, 
asked him if he had seen her, which he denied as he has since said. He 
has also told things under the seal of strict secrecy which are of the ut- 
most importance. The person who knows them objects to teUing them 
to me because Madame de Chevreuse is concerned in them, and being so 
closely related to her, she is reluctant to disclose them to me." 



172 SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT. 

to Dampierre, which would have recalled too vividly the bril- 
liant days of the past, but to a modest villa at Gagnj near 
Cheiles. There, far from the gaze of the world, she awaited 
her last hour, and died in obscurity at the age of seventy-nine, 
in the same year with the Cardinal de Retz and Madame de 
Longueville. She would have neither funeral solemnities nor 
funeral oration; she forbade that they should give her any of 
those titles which she had learned to despise; she wished 
to be interred obscurely in the little old parish church of 
G-agny. There, in the southern aisle near the chapel of the 
Virgin, some faithful but unknown hand has inscribed on a 
slab of black marble, the following epitaph :' " Here lies 
Marie de Kohan, Duchess de Chevreuse, daughter of Hercule 
de Rohan, Duke de Montbazon. She espoused, in her first 
marriage, Charles d'Albert, Duke de Luynes, peer and consta- 
ble of France; and in her second marriage, Claude de Lor. 
raine, Duke de Chevreuse. Humility having deadened in her 
heart all the grandeur of the age, she forbade the revival at 
her death of the least mark of this grandeur, which she wished 
to end by burying beneath the simplicity of this tomb, having 
ordered that they should inter her in the parish church of 
Gagny, where she died at the age of seventy-nine, on the 12th 
of August, 1679." 



^ Abbe Le B^uf, Histoire du diocese de Paris, vol. vi., p. 133, etc. 
He cites an author of the times, who says : " In this epitaph, she is 
neither styled Princess nor even Most High and Mighty Lady ; nor is her 
husband styled Most High and Mighty Prince. She died in this parish, 
at the priory of Saint Fiacre de la Maison Rouge." 



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OP 



HERR TEUFELSDRdCKH. 



IN THREE BOOKS. 



BY THOMAS CARLYLE, 

AtTTHOK or THE "FRENCH RltVOLUTION," "PA3T AND PRESENT," AC, 40. 



Mein Vermachtniss, vvie henl ch weit und breit ! 

Die Zeit ist mein Vermaclilniss, mein Acker ist die Zeit. 



FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION, REVISED AlsD CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR, 



NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY JAMES MILLER, 

(successor to C. S. FRANCIS & CO.) 

532 BROADWAY. 



GUIDE 



TO 



HEALTH AND LONG LIFE: 



OR, 





WHAT EXERCISE TO TAKE, 

HOW TO CONTROL AND REGULATE THE PASSIONS 

AND APPETITES ; AND ON THE GENERAL 

C'JNDUCT OF LIFE, 



WHEREBY HEALTH MAY BE SECURED, AND A HAPPY AND COMFORTABLE OLD AHA 
ATTAINED ; THAT AT LAST, "WHEN OUK CAREER IS CONCLUDED, WE MAY, 



" Like ripe fruit, drop 
Into our Mother's lap, or be with ease 
Gathered, not harshly plucked." — Milton. 



TO WHICH IS ADDED, A POPULAR EXPOSITION OF 

LIEBIG'S THEORY ON LIFE, HEALTH AND DISEASE 



BY ROBERT JAMES CULVERWELL, M. D. 



NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY JAMES MILLER, 

522 BROADWAY. 



H 109 89 










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